Top DHS lawyer faces bar complaint over ‘worst of the worst’ list for judges

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The complaint, filed Wednesday by a group of nearly 130 former federal and state judges, said Percival violated Florida Bar rules, which prohibit making unfounded attacks on the integrity of judges under its rules of professional conduct.

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The complaint largely focuses on the initial July post from Percival attacking four federal judges, modeling it after DHS press releases highlighting the arrests of migrants accused of crimes in a nod to President Trump’s pledge to deport “the worst of the worst.”

“General Counsel Percival’s July 23 post was not, as he described it, a ‘legitimate fact based critique’ of either the Judges or their rulings. The posts were attacks on the characters of four sitting judges, based on mischaracterizations of the underlying cases, and without concern for the repercussions of those statements,” the former judges wrote in the filing.

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In one case, Percival accused U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of “judicial sabotage” after he issued a temporary administrative stay following a Supreme Court ruling largely killing the temporary protected status (TPS) program. The filing said that because the ruling allowed some issues to be litigated, the judge was “seeking to hold the status quo while the parties could complete briefing on still existing matters subject to his jurisdiction and which were not addressed by the recent Supreme Court case.”

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Percival made similar comments about Judge Allison Borroughs, who was overseeing another case related to the termination of TPS.

“There is no indication in the record that Judge Burroughs ‘set a deliberately sluggish’ schedule to avoid compliance with the law in a ‘transparent attempt to delay’ the deportation efforts of DHS,” they wrote.

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DHS did not respond to a request for comment, but Percival defended himself on his social media.

“Notice the resources the Left is putting into silencing me. Why? Judicial activism is their golden goose, and they’re afraid if I keep talking about it then it will stop,” he said in sharing a press release from Democracy Defenders Fund, one of the groups that helped organize the letter.

He later attacked the top signatory on the filing, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince.

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“In honor of former Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince, who just filed a bar complaint against me for calling out judicial activism, I will be creating a new award. The award is called the Justice Peggy Quince Lifetime Achievement Award for Worst of the Worst Judging. I am now accepting nominees!” Percival wrote.

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