Department of Justice attorneys ignored evidence that the nations affected by President Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees have produced terrorists.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a suspension of the order Thursday.
“The Government has not shown that a stay is necessary to avoid irreparable injury,” the unanimous opinion said. “The Government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.”
The opinion from the appeals court added that this is “despite the district court’s and our own repeated invitations to explain the urgent need for the executive order to be placed immediately into effect.”
Judge James Robart, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State, and Judge William Canby, of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both repeated during hearings the falsehood that there have been no terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001 from Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Syria or Iraq.
In both cases, DOJ attorneys were unable to tell them that two Somali individuals have committed acts of terror in the U.S. since 2014, and at least two others — one from Yemen and the other from Somalia — have been charged with planning to commit terror attacks in the U.S.
The DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security have kept the immigration statuses of terrorists hidden, so this figure based off of publicly available information is presumably lower than the actual amount of terrorists from these nations.
The DOJ attorneys arguing the case, however, would be able to get this information.
Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was a Somali refugee, who plowed a car into a crowd of people at Ohio State University in November, and subsequently attacked people with a butcher’s knife. The incident left nine injured, and Artan was killed by a police officer. Dahir Ahmed Adan, another Somali, stabbed 10 people before being shot by an off-duty police officer at a St. Cloud, Minn. mall last September.
Mohamed Rafik Naji, a Yemeni citizen, was arrested in November and allegedly discussed a possible attack on Time Square. Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, a Somali who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, was indicted on terrorism charges in 2015 after allegedly plotting to attack military facilities or prisons in the U.S.
The DOJ attorneys, however, weren’t able to replicate this information. DOJ lawyer Michelle Bennett told Judge Robart, “Your honor, I don’t have that information. I’m from the civil division, if that helps get me off the hook.” While DOJ lawyer August Flentje wasn’t able to point out Judge Canby’s fib, and tried to give an excuse saying, “These proceedings have been moving quite fast and we’re doing the best we can.”
In an email provided to TheDC, conservative attorney Hans Bader informed DOJ assistant director Sharon Swingle on Monday, a day before the appeals court hearing, that Judge Robart was wrong that no terrorists have come from these nations. Swingle is working on the case for the Trump administration. The DOJ has not responded to a press inquiry about why their attorneys were unprepared.
