››Trump undercuts his lawyers with tweets about travel ban.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyers found themselves undercut by their client Monday when the chief executive tweeted that he wanted a “much tougher version” of a “travel ban,” and “not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted” to the Supreme Court last week.
In four tweets posted between 5:25 a.m. and 5:44 a.m., the president slammed his Justice Department for abandoning the “original Travel Ban,” which was blocked by judges in February after it caused chaos at airports across the nation.
“In any event, we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!” Trump wrote.
That claim about vetting may come as news to the justices. In their appeals, Justice Department lawyers have urged the high court to act on an emergency basis to revive the travel order.
Speedy action was needed precisely to allow the government to develop new vetting procedures for people seeking to enter the U.S., the lawyers said. The process of coming up with new vetting procedures was put on hold when lower-court judges blocked Trump’s order from taking effect, they told the high court.
Legal experts said Trump’s latest comments not only undercut the government’s legal strategy, but also cast doubt on the need for the Supreme Court to intervene.
“They said this was a matter of urgency. But if they are already doing the extreme vetting, why do you need an order from the court?” asked Josh Blackman, an associated professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston and a legal blogger.
“I don’t envy the solicitor general,” he added, referring to the government lawyer who represents the administration at the Supreme Court.
The lawyers on the other side, fighting the Trump team in court, were quick to say they were pleased by the president’s comments.
“It’s kinda odd to have the defendant in Hawaii v Trump acting as our cocounsel,” Neal Katyal, the attorney for a group of West Coast plaintiffs, said in a tweet of his own. “We don’t need the help but will take it!”
Omar Jadwat, the attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump had “undercut the picture the government has been trying to paint.”
Lawyers for the government “have made a diligent effort to demonstrate” that the travel order “was not about religious animus,” he said, nor was it an effort to fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge to enact a “Muslim ban.” But Trump’s tweets belie those claims, he added.
Even a notable administration supporter joined the criticism of Trump’s tweeting. George Conway, a prominent New York lawyer who was considered for two top Justice Department posts and is the husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, took to Twitter to say that Trump’s words “won’t help” the solicitor general win five votes at the high court.
Conway followed up with several tweets later in the day in which he said that he still “very, very strongly” supports Trump and his administration.
But, he added, “The point cannot be stressed enough that tweets on legal matters seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS — and those who support him, as I do, need to reinforce that pt and not be shy about it.”
Another senior Republican legal figure issued a more scathing assessment of Trump’s statements.
“The impulsive, uncontrolled, ill-informed President infects the legal soundness of everything his administration does,” Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who served as a top Justice Department official under George W. Bush, wrote on Twitter.
Last month, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the revised order.