A federal judge has placed a one-day administrative stay on the Department of Justice after government lawyers Thursday could not commit to keeping the names of FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 insurrection cases confidential.
U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb made the decision after getting only a limited assurance from DOJ lawyers: that the department would not disclose that information outside the agency before a second court hearing on Friday.
It was a band-aid solution to address the judge’s apparent growing concern that the Trump administration could turn the law enforcement agency into a political football. Earlier in the day when Cobb asked whether the government could assert this list of names wouldn’t go public and acknowledge the risk in exposing them, prosecutors demurred.