President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo/Alex Brandon).
A federal judge in Arizona has penalized a U.S. Department of Justice attorney after finding that he made a “factually baseless” claim about the lawyer for an Iranian immigrant held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a 16-page ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, imposed sanctions on her own initiative. The action followed an order requiring the DOJ to explain why it had suggested the immigration lawyer had probably misled ICE agents during an attempted deportation.
Judge Humetewa said the discipline was intended to address allegations presented as factual claims despite having no adequate evidentiary foundation.
Her assessment of the government’s position was sharply critical.
“It does not appear that counsel for the government made the reasonable inquiry required by [federal rules], or, most importantly, that his accusation had any evidentiary support,” Humetewa had previously written. She noted that the government attorney himself admitted it was “unknowable” what, if anything, the immigrant’s lawyer had said. The judge added that the material submitted to the court either failed to support the allegation or directly contradicted it.
After issuing an order to show cause, the court gave the government a chance to justify the accusation before deciding whether sanctions were appropriate.
The DOJ’s response did little to persuade the judge.
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“From the record here, the Court has little difficulty concluding that AUSA Chupp’s accusation against Petitioner’s counsel was factually baseless from an objective perspective,” Humetewa wrote in the sanctions ruling.
The judge then explained the basis for that conclusion.
According to the order, the government produced no evidence that the immigrant’s attorney had told ICE the client could not currently be deported because a motion was pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. At most, the evidence showed that the lawyer notified the El Paso field office that an appeal was pending before the BIA—without making any statement about whether the immigrant was removable.
The government argued that the accusation was meant to preserve a legal position based on an inference.
Humetewa rejected that explanation, finding that the inference was not grounded in reality and was unsupported by the evidence regardless.
“AUSA Chupp does not argue, nor can he, that his accusation had ‘evidentiary support’ at any time—least of all when it was made—or that, at the time he made it, it ‘likely’ would have such support after reasonable investigation,” the judge wrote.
As a sanction, the DOJ attorney must complete two hours of legal education focused on “the special role of United States Attorneys and the need for evidentiary support for all factual contentions.”
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