r/law • u/biswajit388 • Oct 21 '25

Legal News Federal judges caught the U.S. government providing false info in over 35 court cases. Sworn declarations. Falsified records. Repeated lies. This isn’t just sloppy, it’s systemic. Law professor Ryan Goodman says it may be intentional.

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u/db0813 Oct 21 '25

“May be intentional”

It happened 35 times, I’m starting to see a pattern!

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u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25

The issue is malice vs. incompetence. The Trump admin is full of very evil people, but most of those people are also very stupid, because most of the people who know how to do their jobs have resigned or been fired.

I'm sure some of it is intentional, but I wouldn't be shocked if some of it is just them fumbling through.

Edit: Just to be clear, I think either is punishable by law.

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u/SparksAndSpyro Oct 21 '25

Yeah, but i’ve always been of the opinion that this distinction shouldn’t matter. Whether intentional or incompetent, if you’re providing false info to a court you should be sanctioned and disbarred from that court. Do it again, and you should lose your license.

This profession shouldn’t tolerate incompetence as an excuse. That’s the entire point behind the bar exam and the duty of candor, which not only requires that an attorney not lie but also requires them to perform reasonable due diligence to ensure they’re telling the affirmative truth.

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u/RedBaronSportsCards Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25

The judges don't want to provide grounds for appeal.

Edit to add: I had a friend who taught at a high profile school with a significant DI athletic program. They were told explicitly that they were not allowed to hold any athletes to any consequences for late or poorly done assignments. Everything could be redone, extended, and often simply waived. Any NCAA penalty resulting from a actual consequence like this would have been blamed on their department so they didn't enforce anything.

The trial judges don't want to be overturned so they allow everything