Former Justice Department Lawyer Explains Grand Jury Rejections and Judge's Block on Golf Course Overhaul

A former Justice Department official says a pattern has emerged during the Trump administration: prosecutors act on the president's wishes, and then judges or grand jurors decline to go along. Sarah Isgur, editor of SCOTUSblog and a Justice Department employee during the first Trump administration, discussed the trend in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep on 2026-10-28.

The latest example, NPR has confirmed, is a grand jury's refusal to indict Cassidy Hutchinson at the request of federal prosecutors. Hutchinson is a former Trump White House staffer who testified before the committee that investigated the January 6 attacks.

Inskeep asked whether it was unusual for several grand juries to turn down prosecutors' requests. Isgur noted the old saying that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich, and joked that the system had now run out of deli options. She said prosecutors likely know they are bringing weak cases and are counting on citizens to act as a check.

Isgur also said Justice Department lawyers have looked for ways around grand juries. In the case of Jim Comey, she said, prosecutors tried to avoid seeking an indictment and instead used a document called an information, in which a prosecutor attests that probable cause exists. The judge has not yet ruled, but Isgur predicted the argument would lose, because the Constitution guarantees a grand jury and the statute in question requires an indictment. Inskeep suggested this implied prosecutors expected a grand jury to reject the case again, and Isgur agreed.

The conversation then turned to a public golf course in Washington. A judge has temporarily blocked the president from reshaping it. Judge Ana Reyes questioned whether the president planned to defy her orders by closing and completely redesigning the course.

According to Isgur, Justice Department and Interior Department officials had long told Reyes there were no plans to change the course. Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social that the course would close any day. Government lawyers essentially told the judge to believe them rather than the president, and Reyes repeatedly declined to issue an injunction. That changed, Isgur said, after many trees were removed over Columbus Day weekend. Reyes then said she no longer believed the government's assurances and ordered officials to explain in court whether the president intends to proceed.

Isgur said the case sits in the Justice Department's civil division, not with the prosecutors handling the grand jury matters. She said many career lawyers have not been signing the motions sent to Reyes, leaving some top political appointees as the only signers. In her order, Isgur said, the judge wrote: "I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees. I speak for the rule of law."

Asked why employees might decline to sign the statements, Isgur said they could face disbarment or other bar discipline if they signed something untrue. She added that their refusal also signals to the judge that many officers of the court are unwilling to attest to the government's claims.