Justice Department asks courts to pause high-profile cases for shutdown

The Trump administration asked federal courts nationwide to pause proceedings in a handful of high-profile cases, citing the ongoing government shutdown. In a handful of court papers filed Wednesday in courts across the country, the Justice Department said they “regret any disruption” but department lawyers are currently unable to perform their duties required for the cases. “Although we greatly regret any disruption caused to the court and the other litigants, the government hereby moves for a stay of all proceedings in this case until Department of Justice attorneys are permitted to resume their usual civil litigation functions,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers filed Wednesday in courts across the country.

The court papers said the Justice Department will notify judges “as soon as Congress has appropriated funds for the department. The government requests that, at that point, all current deadlines for the parties be extended commensurate with the duration of the lapse in appropriations.” “The department does not know when funding will be restored by Congress,” the filing says. The government shutdown began Dec. 21 over the inability of Congress to reach a funding deal. The Senate reconvenes Thursday, but there has been no indication that Democrats are ready to pass legislation that would include the $5 billion President Trump wants for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Justice Department attorneys and employees are unable to work even on a voluntary basis, says the court filings, “except in very limited circumstances, including 'emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.'” One of the biggest cases affected is on the administration’s new asylum policy. Last week, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down most of the Justice Department’s policy that made it more difficult for immigrants fleeing domestic violence or gang violence to qualify for asylum.

Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday they could not meet the seven-day deadline ”to develop a schedule and plan to carry out this portion of the injunction” and to meet with the plaintiffs' teams from various American Civil Liberties Union offices, but Sullivan did not immediately rule on the government’s requests. The government said it will notify the courts of when Congress has appropriated the funds for the Justice Department and work can begin again. It was not immediately clear how many cases are affected by the shutdown. he federal court system said they have sufficient funding to remain open for at least three weeks.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice-department-asks-courts-to-pause-high-profile-cases-for-shutdown

LinkedIn co-founder apologizes for funding group linked to disinformation efforts in Alabama special election

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said he is embarrassed for funding a group that reportedly spread disinformation during the 2017 Alabama Senate special election. American Engagement Technologies, an organization Hoffman gave $750,000, allegedly used Facebook and Twitter to help eventual victor Democrat Doug Jones at the expense of Republican Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct. “I find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing," Hoffman said, according to the Washington Post Wednesday. "For that reason, I am embarrassed by my failure to track AET — the organization I did support — more diligently as it made its own decisions to perhaps fund projects that I would reject.” The Internet billionaire said he endorsed a federal investigation into the matter. Mikey Dickerson, a former Obama administration official and head of AET, did not respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.

The New York Times last week reported on an internal study conducted into Democratic digital efforts during the heated Alabama race. For example, tech experts created a Facebook page and posed as Republican voters advocating for a write-in candidate in lieu of Moore. They also boosted claims that Moore's campaign was being "amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the review stated. But the Times reported that the $100,000 operation likely had an insignificant impact on the $51 million contest. Hoffman told the Post Wednesday that AET had funneled money into research firm New Knowledge, one of the groups allegedly part of the project. The firm's CEO Jonathon Morgan said his team experimented online in Alabama in 2017 for research purposes only, but he and several associates were suspended from Facebook on Saturday for encouraging “coordinated inauthentic” behavior on its platform during the campaign. "I can’t object strongly enough to the characterization that we were trying to influence an election in any way,” Morgan told the Post.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/linkedin-co-founder-apologizes-for-funding-group-linked-to-disinformation-efforts-in-alabama-special-election

Indeed..scared..now which is why he's talking.