The U.S. Justice Department has removed a government lawyer from an assignment in Minnesota after she told a federal judge, "This job sucks" and said immigration authorities had failed to comply with court orders, according to a source familiar with the move. Julie Le, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, had been detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota as hundreds of lawsuits flooded the court there from people challenging their detention during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell had ordered her and another government lawyer to appear before him in a St. Paul courtroom on Feb. 3 to explain why the administration had repeatedly not complied with court orders in several cases including ones directing the release of detainees. According to a court transcript, Le told the judge she had "stupidly" volunteered to work at the U.S. Attorney's Office starting January 5 to help it address hundreds of lawsuits that had arrived challenging the detention of people swept up in "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota. "What do you want me to do?" she said, the transcript showed. "The system sucks. This job sucks." A Justice Department spokesperson said the Trump administration was complying with court orders "and fully enforcing federal immigration law", blaming high caseloads on "rogue judges." The source said the Justice Department had cut short Le's assignment. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called Le's remarks "unprofessional and unbecoming" but did not say whether she had returned to her previous job. Le did not respond to requests for comment. During the Feb. 3 hearing, Le said she had worked days and nights on the cases and tried to ensure court orders were complied with. But she said she had not received proper training from the Justice Department and had struggled to ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement complied with all court orders, "which they have not done in the past or currently". "Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep," Le told Blackwell, according to the transcript. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota has come under strain as it faces a flood of immigration petitions and cases accusing demonstrators of assaulting federal agents. Six prosecutors, including some senior officials, resigned earlier this month in protest against how President Donald Trump's administration handled the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent. Blackwell, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said he understood "the concerns about all the energy that this is causing the DOJ to expend, but, with respect, some of it is of your own making by not complying with orders." Le said she shared his concerns about how the immigration cases were being handled. "I am not white, as you can see," she said. "And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too, so I share the same concern, and I took that concern to heart."

Georgia's Fulton County filed a challenge on Feb. 4 to the legality of a warrant and seizure of election records in an FBI search of an election facility last week, seeking the return of all confiscated files and the unsealing of a related affidavit. The FBI searched the election office outside Atlanta as it pursues U.S. President Donald Trump's false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voting fraud. The raid was the latest in a string of actions by Trump's administration to use the Justice Department against his perceived enemies or to intervene in cases in which he believes he was treated unfairly. The county asked a federal court to limit the warrant to provide an opportunity for a forensic accounting of all the documents and to request they stay in Georgia, Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. told Reuters in an interview, adding that ideally he would like all records returned. "Frankly, though, it's really too late," Arrington said. "Even if they give us the records back, we still don't know if they lost records or deleted records because there was no inventory, there was no orderly transition of these files." FBI agents searched the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, a large, warehouse-like facility opened in 2023. "This morning, February 4, 2026, Fulton County has filed a motion in federal court, in the Northern District of Georgia, seeking the return of all files from the 2020 Election that were confiscated by the FBI on Wednesday, January 28," a county spokesperson said in a statement. "The motion also seeks the unsealing of the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant," the spokesperson added. According to a copy of the search warrant seen by Reuters, the FBI was directed to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 general election in Fulton County as well as tabulator tapes for every voting machine used and voter rolls from absentee, early voting, in-person and other voters. Joe Biden, a Democrat, won Georgia and defeated Trump, a Republican who was seeking reelection in 2020. Trump returned to the presidency for a second term last year after winning the 2024 election. The seizure of the records comes ahead of November's midterm elections, with Republicans seeking to retain their control of both chambers of Congress.

A federal judge on Feb. 2 blocked a renewed attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to bar members of Congress from making unannounced visits to immigrant detention facilities. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could not revive the policy, which the judge had blocked in December, by claiming it is using a different source of funding to implement it. The ruling came in a lawsuit by 13 Democratic members of Congress. Trump, a Republican, has made a crackdown on legal and illegal immigration a centerpiece of his second term. That has included a mass deportation campaign and the detention of thousands of people awaiting legal proceedings. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a January 8 memo mandated that members of Congress request access to detention centers at least seven days in advance, citing "significant and sometimes violent incidents." Cobb last month had blocked an identical policy adopted in June from being implemented using resources funded by the department's general annual budget, such as for staff and equipment. She said that under federal law, members of Congress have broad authority to conduct oversight at detention centers. Noem in the memo said the agency would instead use part of the $29 billion earmarked for immigration enforcement efforts in Trump's 2025 tax cut and spending legislation. Cobb in December said that funding was not subject to the same legal limitations as money that comes from the general budget. But on Monday, the judge said the Trump administration had not shown that the policy could be implemented and enforced using only the earmarked funds. "At least some of these resources that either have been or will be used to promulgate and enforce the notice policy have already been funded and paid for with restricted annual appropriations funds," Cobb wrote. Cobb, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, blocked the policy pending further litigation. The Democrats who filed the lawsuit are represented by Democracy Forward, which is involved in dozens of legal challenges to Trump administration policies. Skye Perryman, the group's president and CEO, in a statement said Cobb's ruling restores the ability of Congress to expose dangerous conditions at detention centers. The lawmakers come from California, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Texas.