That\u2019s\u2026 a lot of hustle for a Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
To be clear about what actually happened Saturday night:<\/a> the suspect, a California teacher and engineer, rushed a security checkpoint and ran toward the ballroom where the black-tie dinner was being held, armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. He exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled to the ground. One Secret Service agent was hit in his bulletproof vest, treated, and released<\/a>. <\/a><\/p>\n No one was killed. The shooter was arrested. A scary incident, genuinely, and one that could have been catastrophically worse. We can all agree on that.<\/p>\n But the Trump administration did not wait to agree on that and move on. Instead, Assistant AG Brett Shumate fired off a letter to the National Trust for Historic Preservation\u2019s outside counsel demanding the Trust voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit <\/a>against the White House ballroom by 9 a.m. Monday, or the DOJ would move to dissolve Judge Richard Leon\u2019s injunction<\/a> and kill the case itself. \u201cYour lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family, and his staff at grave risk,\u201d Shumate wrote. \u201cEnough is enough. Your client should voluntarily dismiss this frivolous lawsuit today in light of last night\u2019s assassination attempt on President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter then argued that the shooter targeting Trump \u201cat the Washington Hilton, the only ballroom in Washington, D.C., suitable to host large gatherings for the President\u201d proved the White House ballroom was \u201cessential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Strong language\u2026 just a few not-so-minor details that prevent it from landing. Like how the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner is not a White House event<\/a>, but rather hosted by the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association. And that attending is a presidential choice \u2014 indeed Trump has skipped out on every other Correspondents\u2019 Dinner he was invited to. Plus the administration did not even designate the event as a National Special Security Event, a classification that would have required a higher threshold of security measures.<\/p>\n So\u2026 Trump voluntarily attended a non-White House event, the Secret Service chose to skimp on security measures, and because something bad happened there \u2014 that the Secret Service still successfully thwarted<\/em> \u2014 the president should be afforded unilateral authority to throw a tumorous ballroom onto a national landmark? Maybe we shouldn\u2019t be surprised, the administration has been calling everything a national security necessity<\/a> since the East Wing came down (Judge Leon already had occasion to note that \u201cnational security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity\u201d). It\u2019ll be interesting to see how Judge Leon \u2014 the same George W. Bush appointee who has been watching this administration make increasingly strained arguments<\/a> for the better part of a year<\/a> \u2014 reacts to this one.<\/p>\n The DOJ letter is also, to put it charitably, in significant tension with the position this administration has staked out in every other gun-related tragedy in recent memory. When children are murdered in their classrooms, the answer from this crowd is invariably: thoughts and prayers, mental health, it\u2019s too soon to talk about policy. But shots fired in the vicinity of GOP politicians and suddenly something needs to be done by 9 a.m. Monday? The whiplash would be funny if it weren\u2019t so grotesque.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the part that the administration has, seemingly, not thought through at all: the optics of this move are doing absolutely nothing to tamp down the false flag speculation that immediately erupted online after the shooting. Now, to be clear, there is no credible evidence this was a false flag. The suspect sent his family a note about 10 minutes before the attack apologizing to his parents, colleagues, and students for what he was about to do, w<\/a>r<\/a>iting<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t expect forgiveness.\u201d That is not the behavior of a government plant. The shooter appears to be exactly what he appears to be.<\/p>\n But false flag theories don\u2019t survive and thrive on evidence. They\u2019re built on the appearance<\/em> of suspicious opportunism. And the DOJ \u2014 less than 24 hours after the shooting \u2014 publicly calling on the plaintiff\u2019s attorney to drop a specific ongoing lawsuit that directly benefits the president, using language like \u201cI hope yesterday\u2019s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly\u201d of your lawsuit\u2026 is not a great look for an administration trying to project good faith.<\/p>\n Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Good Job DOJ, Now The Conspiracy Theorists Have A Point<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n You almost have to admire the speed.<\/p>\n Less than 24 hours after a gunman was tackled outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, the Department of Justice had already drafted a letter addressed to Greg Craig of Foley Hoag demanding the firm drop its case against the administration for redesigning the White House without any congressional approval. Acting AG Todd Blanche subsequently posted this letter to X<\/a> with the six-word summary: \u201cIt\u2019s time to build the ballroom.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u2026 a lot of hustle for a Sunday morning.<\/p>\n To be clear about what actually happened Saturday night:<\/a> the suspect, a California teacher and engineer, rushed a security checkpoint and ran toward the ballroom where the black-tie dinner was being held, armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. He exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled to the ground. One Secret Service agent was hit in his bulletproof vest, treated, and released<\/a>. <\/a><\/p>\n No one was killed. The shooter was arrested. A scary incident, genuinely, and one that could have been catastrophically worse. We can all agree on that.<\/p>\n But the Trump administration did not wait to agree on that and move on. Instead, Assistant AG Brett Shumate fired off a letter to the National Trust for Historic Preservation\u2019s outside counsel demanding the Trust voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit <\/a>against the White House ballroom by 9 a.m. Monday, or the DOJ would move to dissolve Judge Richard Leon\u2019s injunction<\/a> and kill the case itself. \u201cYour lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family, and his staff at grave risk,\u201d Shumate wrote. \u201cEnough is enough. Your client should voluntarily dismiss this frivolous lawsuit today in light of last night\u2019s assassination attempt on President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter then argued that the shooter targeting Trump \u201cat the Washington Hilton, the only ballroom in Washington, D.C., suitable to host large gatherings for the President\u201d proved the White House ballroom was \u201cessential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Strong language\u2026 just a few not-so-minor details that prevent it from landing. Like how the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner is not a White House event<\/a>, but rather hosted by the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association. And that attending is a presidential choice \u2014 indeed Trump has skipped out on every other Correspondents\u2019 Dinner he was invited to. Plus the administration did not even designate the event as a National Special Security Event, a classification that would have required a higher threshold of security measures.<\/p>\n So\u2026 Trump voluntarily attended a non-White House event, the Secret Service chose to skimp on security measures, and because something bad happened there \u2014 that the Secret Service still successfully thwarted<\/em> \u2014 the president should be afforded unilateral authority to throw a tumorous ballroom onto a national landmark? Maybe we shouldn\u2019t be surprised, the administration has been calling everything a national security necessity<\/a> since the East Wing came down (Judge Leon already had occasion to note that \u201cnational security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity\u201d). It\u2019ll be interesting to see how Judge Leon \u2014 the same George W. Bush appointee who has been watching this administration make increasingly strained arguments<\/a> for the better part of a year<\/a> \u2014 reacts to this one.<\/p>\n The DOJ letter is also, to put it charitably, in significant tension with the position this administration has staked out in every other gun-related tragedy in recent memory. When children are murdered in their classrooms, the answer from this crowd is invariably: thoughts and prayers, mental health, it\u2019s too soon to talk about policy. But shots fired in the vicinity of GOP politicians and suddenly something needs to be done by 9 a.m. Monday? The whiplash would be funny if it weren\u2019t so grotesque.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the part that the administration has, seemingly, not thought through at all: the optics of this move are doing absolutely nothing to tamp down the false flag speculation that immediately erupted online after the shooting. Now, to be clear, there is no credible evidence this was a false flag. The suspect sent his family a note about 10 minutes before the attack apologizing to his parents, colleagues, and students for what he was about to do, w<\/a>r<\/a>iting<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t expect forgiveness.\u201d That is not the behavior of a government plant. The shooter appears to be exactly what he appears to be.<\/p>\n But false flag theories don\u2019t survive and thrive on evidence. They\u2019re built on the appearance<\/em> of suspicious opportunism. And the DOJ \u2014 less than 24 hours after the shooting \u2014 publicly calling on the plaintiff\u2019s attorney to drop a specific ongoing lawsuit that directly benefits the president, using language like \u201cI hope yesterday\u2019s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly\u201d of your lawsuit\u2026 is not a great look for an administration trying to project good faith.<\/p>\n Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Good Job DOJ, Now The Conspiracy Theorists Have A Point<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You almost have to admire the speed. Less than 24 hours after a gunman was tackled outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, the Department of Justice had already drafted a letter addressed to Greg Craig of Foley Hoag demanding the firm drop its case against the administration for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-517uS7.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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