The Trump administration inadvertently showed its cards when its own lawyers released a confidential document expressing grave doubts about their legal fight with New York to end congestion pricing.
But does that mean Washington’s whole case will go bust?
It started when lawyers representing the U.S. Department of Transportation filed a detailed memo in federal court that laid out why the agency was likely to lose. The memo, which should not have been filed because it is subject to attorney-client privilege, was on the docket for less than an hour Wednesday night before it was pulled.
But by Thursday morning, the letter had been widely shared online. Hours later, the agency effectively fired its legal team of lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York after suggesting that the disclosure may have been politically-motivated sabotage. A spokesman for the Southern District said the disclosure was an accident.
It is now up to a federal judge whether the 11-page letter, which provides a road map for blowing up the Transportation Department’s legal defense, should be permanently sealed and excluded from the court proceedings.
On Thursday, backers of congestion pricing asked the court whether the letter might be unsealed and made part of the case. Some legal observers said, however, that whatever the court decides about the letter, the better question is whether the damage is already done.
“The cat’s out of the bag,” said Michael Gerrard, a professor at Columbia Law School who supports congestion pricing. “Everyone knows the contents of the letter, regardless of whether it’s sealed.”