Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly Demands Someone at DOJ Put Ethical Skin in the Game
Around mid-day (maybe my time? maybe yours?), everything went wrong in the Dan Richman docket, in his bid to stop DOJ from violating his Fourth Amendment rights in their bid to indict Jim Comey.
The Clerk alerted the filers of four of the last filings they had fucked up.
Richman’s attorneys — lawyers from NY who filed docket # 9 and 15 — had filed a document signed by the people who posted it under someone else’s PACER login. The Clerk reminded Richman’s lawyers the person who actually signs into PACER to file something must have signed the document.
The other error was potentially more serious. DOJ’s two filings, 12 and 13, which were DOJ’s identical bid to lift the restraining order on accessing Richman’s data and opposing Richman’s motion for a TRO, noticed a different error. Best as I can explain it, the guy who filed this stuff, John Bailey, is not on the filings at all.
Not scintillating, perhaps. But nevertheless a testament to the fact that this docket, with its NY lawyers for Richman and a mix of shady lawyers for DOJ, were not doing what the clerk’s office checks to make sure the people actually making court filings have ethical skin in the game.
This came after another apparent problem in the docket. By all appearances, Pam Bondi had blown off Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s order that someone at DOJ confirm they were following her order that the entire government will stay out of Dan Richman’s stuff until Friday.
The Attorney General of the United States or her designee is further ORDERED to certify that the United States is in compliance with this Order no later than 12:00 p.m. ET on Monday, December 8, 2025.
It turns out DOJ’s failure to file anything on the docket was just another problem with the docket.
After both DOJ and Richman filed their filings yesterday (which I wrote about here) and after neither responded to Judge KK’s order that if they want to discuss these files, they may need to do a filter protocol, Judge KK weighed in again.
She noticed the same thing I did!! None of the people making these claims wanted to put their own ethical skin in the game. This is, significantly, what she seemed to be looking for when she made sure Richman got someone to file a notice of appearance.
Today’s order reveals what happened with her order to file a notice of compliance by Monday: They emailed it, two minutes before her deadline (but fucked up Lindsey the Insurance Lawyer’s filing … and anything else would frankly shock me at this point, because this has happened with pretty much everything filed under her name since she first showed up for Trump).
In response to this Court’s [10] Order dated December 6, 2025, Attorney Robert K. McBride sent an email to this Court’s Chambers at approximately 11 :58 a.m. ET on December 8, 2025, attaching a document certifying the Government’s compliance with the Court’s [10] Order, along with proposed Notices of Appearance for himself and Attorneys Todd W. Blanche and Lindsey Halligan. 1
1 The document that the Court is construing as a proposed Notice of Appearance for Attorney Halligan was attached with the filename “NOA Halligan,” but the substance of the document appeared to be a Notice of Appearance for Attorney Blanche. Another document attached to Attorney McBride’s email, entitled “NOA Blanche” was identical to this document except that it omitted Attorney Blanche’s Bar number.
She then laid out the two problems I did here. “[P]roviding documents by email is not a substitute for filing them on the docket.” “Attorney Bailey’s electronic signature does not appear in the body of the Government’s [12] Response and Motion–only the electronic signatures of Attorneys Blanche, Halligan, and McBride appear-and Attorney Bailey has not filed a notice of appearance.”
And then she laid out the problem with it — the reason I’ve been watching it closely this week.
To ensure that counsel who are accountable for the Government’s representations and legal positions in this matter are accurately identified in the official record of this case, it is ORDERED that all counsel of record for the Government shall file notices of appearance no later than 10:00 a.m. ET tomorrow, December 11, 2025.
She needs someone to hold accountable. She needs ethical skin in the game.
And then she ordered someone to file a certification of compliance on the docket, like she originally expected, by tomorrow morning.
It is further ORDERED that, no later than the same deadline, 10:00 a.m. ET tomorrow, December 11, 2025, the Government shall file on the docket its certification of compliance with this Court’s [10] Order dated December 6, 2025.
Who knows what happens next?!?!
What I do know is Todd Blanche and his buddies are awfully squirmy about what they’re doing. And I’m not the only one who noticed.
Update: Here are two other dockets in which Todd Blanche played a key role:
- In LaMonica McIver, in which he is witness, substitute US Attorney, and the guy who bypassed PIN, only the AUSAs appear.
- In Jeffrey Epstein (and Ghislaine Maxwell), in which Blanche was the only signer of the original motion to unseal and in the district where he worked as an AUSA, he did file a notice of appearance, before others filed after him. Of course he got admitted in DC via representing Trump.
Update: Welp. DOJ failed. Robert McBride and Lindsey Halligan filed notices of appearance (albeit in each other’s names). Todd Blanche did not.
But they did not, as Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered them to do, filed their certification of compliance to the docket.
In my head, I’m seeing a bunch of DOJ lawyers sitting around a conference table, sounding like that old Life cereal commercial . . .
“I won’t sign it.”
“I won’t sign it.”
“I won’t sign it.”
“Let’s get . . .”
But I can’t figure out which name will fill in that last sentence.
Whoever it is, their appearance before Judge K-K will be . . . interesting.
I think she should dismiss with prejudice if the government won’t say who is the prosecutor of record, because there is no way to decide who has standing with the authority to pursue the case. I think that would get AG Bondi’s attention.
Let’s get Mikey to sign it… He’ll sign anything.
Great minds! (Note my post at 7:08 last night!)
It wasn’t me! h/t Shaggy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTMgX1PDGAE
10AM is too early for popcorn, and definitely too early for a high-ball, but I really, really, really want to see how they try to slither out of this.
My guess is they’ll just follow her order–though Blanche may balk based in his inappropriate participation in these things while also being a witness.
Bondi, Blanche et al stupidly thought that CKK would not pay attention to this detail. But the jig is up. To protract this ridiculous three-ring circus, I can see them placing Halligan’s or Habba’s or the name of another “special attorney” on the filing, thus tying up the court for several more months — as motions are made to disqualify said attorneys and are argued and followed by appeals, etc. — with what amounts to egregious stonewalling. These are the most conniving but also the most stupid people ever to lead a prominent federal agency.
“Let’s make Mikey sign it. He’ll sign anything.”
“Anyone have a Sharpie? He’ll sign *anything* without needing to know what it says.”
Autopen?
Radar and Colonel Blake: Should I have really signed blank papers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4daR9TN3BHc
Sorry for stepping on your comment.
OT Republican lobbyist on class divide representation in districts, re-his paper
https://cgcn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/FILE_0729.pdf
Class Dismissed II Analysis The Secession of the Successful
It’s not every day that you find us agreeing with President Clinton’s former Labor Secretary,
Robert Reich. But back in the 1990s, Reich captured an emerging social phenomenon, which
he called “the secession of the successful.” By that he meant the nation’s elite removing
themselves from everyday people and their concerns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFXl6l8XIew
As of this time (12/10/2025, 7:18 ET), the respective tab on CourtListener (“Parties and Attorneys”) says respondent USA is represented by John Bailey (Attorney to be noticed and Lead Attorney). No more attorneys are listed.
For some reason a vision, unbidden and clear as day, just popped into my head: Coyote in a Roadrunner episode, standing frozen under a falling anvil with a short fuse on a stick of dynamite blazing in his hand — and a blank stare on his face.
Acme Law.
Does anybody pay a price for all this hanky-panky?
That clears up a whole bunch of questions I had about the docket.
Is there really no-one at Main Justice who has electronic filing privileges with the DC District Court who could sign onto this? Or, I suppose, who is also willing to sign onto this …
Oh … I think that I see the problem …
It must be SO frustrating for the judges having to deal with these government lawyers who act like they have never appeared in court (or, “this court”, wherever that may be) before! I imagine that it would be like dealing with pro se defendants, but in every case!
Judge KK knows that whomever she spoke to at DC USAO wants to stay the fuck away, and that person (who may be Jocelyn Ballantine) seems to know DOJ is trying ot pull a fast one.
Any word/thoughts on what happened with today’s two deadlines for filings on the question of whether the government should be allowed to look at Richman’s data for the purpose of explaining why they needed it? I’m guessing that we can’t assume that DOJ passed up the judge’s kind invitation to file something.
Based on the docket, DOJ indeed passed up the court’s kind offer (which was of course in response to the government’s own comments).
This makes it appear that what they wanted to file either implicated attorney-client privilege or was beyond the scope of the search warrants such that it would not have survived a court-approved filter process.
Kind of surprised Rudy hasn’t filed something by now.
He’s been disbarred in DC
I’m trying to come up with a bona fide reason for McBride sending the certification to chambers via email instead of filing it on the docket. I can’t come up with one. The only plausible reason is to avoid signing a filed pleading because the signing of said filed pleading will land you in hot water.
While I concur that someone from DOJ will likely sign and file a certification tomorrow, I suspect that any certification that is filed will be worded in a way that will give the good Judge some serious indigestion.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
We’ve been down this road before, many times:
Never attribute solely to stupidity that which can be explained by the malice of Bondi, Blanche and Trump.
If it’s not on the docket, it ain’t on the docket. K-K is not going to let that pass.
I suspect the time is coming soon where this game will fall apart, because though IANAL, don’t these failures to answer the motion imply acceptance of the adversary’s claim? I suspect the problem of notice is somewhat covered by Judge K-K sending this direct to main DoJ as well, but for us ordinary riff-raff we’d waive our opportunity to oppose the motion to dismess.
I suspect that if they now file something on the docket (ie the certification) that differs in some kind of suspicious way, as in there are other significant differences than just the attorneys signatures on the email vs. docket versions, then it will raise eyebrows even *higher than we previously thought possible* by judge KK about the issue of these gov’t attorneys being so damn worried about putting their own names/skins in the game.
I.e. if they think she won’t compare the two “filings” and note every discrepancy with a fine-toothed comb then wow, they dumb as fenceposts
Imagine they’re asking for a filter protocol that doesn’t involve Comey in SDFL. They need to prevent it from becoming publicly known that they are doing so, otherwise it puts the SDFL lawyers on the hook.
And IIRC McBride is a real lawyer trying not to get fired. The rest are corrupt lawyers trying to dodge accountability.
My goodness, they screwed up again! The NOAs filed this morning for Halligan and McBride reversed the titles with the attorneys. Halligan’s is labeled “McBride” and McBride’s is labeled “Halligan.” A clown show even when they try their best!
DC federal district court judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, 82, is on senior status. She’s been on the federal bench for the DC district for 28 years, and is a former presiding judge on the FISC. Before that, she served almost 13 years as a judge on DC’s superior (trial) court. Earlier, she spent three years at DoJ as a criminal appellate attorney, and worked several years in private practice.
With that wealth of experience, she must be a tad surprised, if not alarmed, that no one in Donald Trump’s DoJ seems capable of properly filing documents with the DC district court. She’s not likely to allow that to go unnoticed or without consequence.
So, was McBride actually trying to file a NOA for the should-be-departed-from-the-case Lindsey Halligan, or did he file two NOAs for Todd Blanche? Hopefully, that will be cleared up by 10.00 am tomorrow.
The suspense of finding out how much is malice, how much incompetence, and how much incompetence trying to pull off malice is quite exciting.
LOL
Indeed
I shook my head at the incompetence of purportedly not having electronic filing rights in the District of … the District of Columbia, even though someone involved in this case obviously does—but the lack of a certification on the docket by the Thursday deadline (today) could make some of the more conspiratorially minded among us suspect the veracity of the certification emailed on Monday.
Or maybe malice trying to pull off incompetence.
On one hand, the attorneys don’t want to lose their licenses. On the other they don’t want to piss of the judge. On the gripping hand they don’t want to get fired. I think we might just see an epidemic of stupidity and incompetence over the next few days. The people will go out on medical leave, after which they’ll be on vacation…
Incompetence and negligence are the go-to defenses of the criminal and malicious lawyer. They carry far fewer penalties and allow the purportedly unable to live to fight another day.
As cruelty is the point, incompetence is tactical.
Just following up on the term “ethics” in your post title.
The reports are that U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove, who previously served as President Donald Trump’s personal defense attorney and a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, has been hit with a judicial misconduct complaint for his appearance at the Trump “affordability” rally on Tuesday night.
I guess there really is no shame. Or ethics, either – if you can’t have it in a Circuit Court judge, why would you expect it in a lowly US attorney?
Attached is an interview in Slate with the to-be filer of the complaint.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/trump-supreme-court-appointment-emil-bove-fail.html
They’re not off to a good start this morning …
1st filing of the day … docketed as the NOA for Lindsey Halligan, filed by Ms Halligan, is actually Robert McBride’s NOA!
Maybe it really is just rank incompetence.
And Mr McBride followed up by filing … Ms Halligan’s NOA! I give up.
As of 10:08, there is no sign on the docket of the certification of compliance, or an NOA for Blanche (with or without bar number!).
They also backdated the screwed-up NOAs by three days, thus pretending that they actually met the judge’s December 6 order. You could not write a believable script about such incompetence, especially from the most powerful prosecutorial office in the country.
Filing a federal court document with a knowingly false date? Does no one at DoJ want to keep their law license?
Not only with a false date: Halligan’s filing (as available on the CourtListener docket) can still changed: from the options given for the court district to the individual fields of the form.
I may have to take the day off and have that high-ball early, just because
The judge is 82! They could have waited her out to replace her, but DoJ seems set to give her an aneurysm. Not sure if “contempt” will happen first or if “failure to file timely appeal” will be the first sanction.
(not really) OT: a little comedy relief for y’all: White House attempting to submit a formal nomination for VA US Atty – Lindsey!
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/white-house-seeks-advance-lindsey-halligans-nomination-us-attorney-faces-hurdles-2025-12-11/
Typo?
‘ But they did not, as Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered them to do, filed their certification of compliance to the docket.’
filed > file
Specifically, a federal court filing is subject to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules. Rule 11 means that when you sign a federal court paper, you certify that it is being filed in good faith, not for an improper purpose, is accurate, and is based on law or a good faith argument for extension of existing law.
I wonder whether these transposed names were actually done on purpose to stall while they try to find some flunky to falsely assert they are not digging through Richman’s AC privileged files. The newest lawyer in the office may get the short straw.
All the ethical and forthright DOJ lawyers – who devoted their careers to maintaining the superior reputation their department had with federal judges – are probably having aneurysms right now.
Assuming there are any left, that is.