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NEWS SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 ¦ 19

$200K Settlement Reached After
Trump Officials Admitted to Lying

By Jacqueline Thomsen
When the Trump administration announced
earlier this year that it would block New
York state residents from participating in
some programs meant to help Americans at interna-
tional borders, attorneys with Arnold & Porter Kaye
Scholer quickly came up with a way to challenge the
policy.
Within 48 hours of the policy being announced,
lawyers with the firm’s appellate and Supreme Court
practice group charted a litigation strategy that
would charge officials with violating the Adminis-
trative Procedure Act. Soon after, three New York review of how the false statements ended up in his
residents hired the firm. courtroom. That report is due Friday.
“On February 14, 2020, just nine days after DHS In D.C., Leon urged the parties to try and reach a
issued the ban, the team filed a 21-page, three-count settlement in the case. A couple weeks later, lawyers
complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief,” Ar- filed a settlement agreement in which DOJ admit-
nold & Porter attorneys said in a filing Thursday. ted to making false statements and agreed to cover
The behind-the-scenes details emerged after U.S. costs Arnold & Porter racked up in the litigation.
District Senior Judge Richard Leon of the District In return, the firm agreed not to seek discovery or
of Columbia ordered the firm to justify a $212,140 sanctions, and both parties asked Leon to dismiss
payout the Trump administration agreed to make the case.
in settling the case. The two parties submitted the In Thursday’s filing, the private attorneys said in
settlement following the administration’s acknowl- working on the litigation, “the team conducted an
edgement that it made false statements in litigation exhaustive review of the administrative record—
challenging the DHS policy against New Yorkers. first with redactions, then without—which revealed
That shocking admission, made in court filings that officials at the DHS has misrepresented the facts
in parallel litigation in Washington, D.C., and the concerning their rationale for the Global Entry ban.
Southern District of New York, showed officials en- “DHS told the Court and Plaintiffs that the ban
acted the policy targeting New York over a state rule on New York residents was necessary because ‘New
that blocked federal officials from accessing motor York is the only state’ that restricted DHS’s access
vehicle records, despite other states enacting similar to state DMV records. The unredacted adminis-
measures without facing the same penalties. trative record revealed this was untrue,” the filing
Officials said they were dropping the policy, which reads. “According to internal agency documents,
blocked New Yorkers from DHS’s Trusted Traveler DHS knew all along that at least a dozen other states
programs like Global Entry that offer Americans and territories did the exact same thing but were not
expedited screenings at international airports and similarly punished. Plaintiffs’ counsel brought this
borders. issue to the court’s attention during the summary
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, who presided judgment hearing, and in a post-argument letter.”
over the New York-based litigation, ordered a full
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