The Department of Transportation (DOT) has replaced the lawyers defending it in a case related to New York City’s congestion pricing, just after it was revealed lawyers with the Department of Justice (DOJ) accidentally filed a document questioning the legitimacy of the Trump administration’s case.
The move came after DOT accused the lawyers of undermining the department’s attempt to end the Manhattan toll, The New York Times reported.
On Wednesday evening, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office said it accidentally filed a confidential memo that questioned DOT’s legal strategy and urged the department to take a new approach.
In the filing, dated April 11, three assistant U.S. attorneys on the case warned that DOT and its secretary, Sean Duffy, were “exceedingly likely” to fail in their goal of ending the congestion pricing plan, the Times reported.
The attorneys said they thought the administration would have better success in court if it challenged the program as a “matter of changed agency priorities” instead of questioning the legality of the plan.
The Hill has reached out to DOT for more information, but a spokesperson told the Times that the filing of the memo was “legal malpractice.”
The spokesperson questioned whether the Southern District of New York lawyers on the case are “incompetent or was this their attempt to RESIST?”
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office said the publication of the filing to the website was an “honest error” and that the office looks forward to continuing to advocate for its clients, the DOT and Federal Highway Administration. The filing is no longer up on the case docket online.
DOT officials said they were looking to have the case transferred to the civil division of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.
Duffy and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) are engaged in a battle over the toll program.
Duffy said this week that he would cut off approval and funding for construction projects in New York City if the state doesn’t end the congestion pricing program since the deadline the Trump administration gave passed.
Hochul’s office has insisted that the congestion pricing plan is working, and the state is achieving its goals of lessening traffic and pollution while collecting a toll to go toward other infrastructure projects.
New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) filed a lawsuit in February to keep the program in place.
Duffy initially set the expiration of the plan to be March 21, but delayed it 30 days until April 20. Federal officials said MTA provided a proposed schedule that would allow the toll to continue through the summer and possibly go until October.
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