Military lawyers may serve as special assistant US attorneys in litigation with no clear military connection, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled.
Federal law has long allowed the attorney general to appoint military lawyers to support US attorneys’ offices “when the public interest so requires,” Magistrate Judge Shannon G. Elkins wrote in an order Friday in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota. Her order denied a defendant’s request to remove a judge advocate from a pending case.
The decision follows the Trump administration’s increasing use of military lawyers in US attorneys’ offices and immigration courts.
Attorneys for ...