Trump administration halts environmental litigation, sidelines attorneys, sources say

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has halted all pending environmental litigation and reassigned 4 profession Justice Division attorneys centered on environmental points, in response to three sources acquainted with the matter and a pair of memos seen by Reuters on Friday.

The memos order the division to not file any new lawsuits or different authorized briefs and to halt all pending settlements and consent decrees to offer the brand new Republican administration time to rethink beforehand agreed offers.

The change, one of many memos stated, is supposed to make sure the federal authorities “speaks with one voice in its view of the legislation and to make sure the president’s appointees or designees have the chance to determine whether or not to provoke any new instances.”

The choice to maneuver the 4 officers, who aren’t political appointees, from overseeing the pure assets, environmental enforcement, appellate and environmental crimes sections is the most recent in a string of comparable actions as Trump shakes up the federal authorities’s 2.2 million-strong workforce.

The division’s Atmosphere and Pure Assets Division is chargeable for bringing prison and civil instances associated to air and water air pollution, animal welfare and public security, in addition to defending in courtroom authorities businesses such because the Division of the Inside and the Division of Power.

The 4 part chiefs have been informed in an e-mail late Thursday they’ve 15 days to simply accept the brand new project to a newly created Sanctuary Metropolis Working Group or face adversarial penalties, the sources informed Reuters.

A Justice Division spokesperson declined to remark.

The sources have been granted anonymity as a result of they don’t seem to be approved to talk to the media. The sources stated the reassigned officers haven’t been supplied additional particulars about their new assignments.

Trump has lengthy dismissed local weather change as a “hoax,” vowed to chop regulation and on his first day in workplace withdrew the U.S. from the Paris local weather treaty.

4 different Justice Division staff who labored on environmental justice points have been additionally positioned on paid administrative depart this week, 4 sources acquainted with the matter stated.

The 4 officers positioned on depart embrace Cynthia Ferguson, who led the environmental justice workplace, and Lana Pettus, a prosecutor who labored on some high-profile instances such because the 2015 prison Clear Water Act case towards Duke Power (NYSE:DUK).

The Trump administration this week ordered anybody within the federal authorities on variety, fairness and inclusion points to be positioned on depart, and in addition referred to as for the elimination of any workplace or place involving environmental justice.

Ferguson and Pettus couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.

The order to freeze all pending environmental regulation was issued to staff on Thursday morning, the sources stated.

It’s just like one other memo issued earlier within the week to the Civil Rights Division which additionally halted all litigation, together with efforts to finalize court-approved settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville to handle civil rights abuses by the police.