UPDATE on Berenson v Biden: a (senior) federal lawyer just joined the case and the gov't wants to extend the stay

What does this mean? We can't be sure, but if Trump administration simply intends to let Judge Jessica G.L. Clarke dismiss the case and set up an appeal, these aren't the moves to make.

A few hours ago, I offered an update on Berenson v Biden, explaining we’d reached a ripe moment to settle the lawsuit with the Trump administration and tell the world how the Biden White House had censored me — but that the administration might be heading down a road that would make it defend Democratic censorship.

Since then, the Justice Department has filed two notices in the case. First, it added a senior attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rebecca Sol Tinio, the deputy chief of the SDNY’s civil division, to its team.

Then, even more intriguingly, it asked for a (short) extra stay, from July 25 to August 1.

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(High stakes lawsuits. Even higher stakes reporting. All yours for pennies a day.)

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Obviously, we aren’t going to oppose the additional stay.

The real question is why the Justice Department wants it. The people who will have to decide to settle this case have LOTS of other issues to worry about, and it is entirely possible they are looking at it only now, with the expiration of the stay looming. Deadlines have a way of doing that.

Hopefully, the additional time is a sign they are considering whether they want to continue to defend Berenson v Biden against potential appeals to the federal Second Circuit and ultimately the Supreme Court.

If that’s the case, I hope they will talk to James Lawrence, who represents Berenson v Biden (and who was a top lawyer for the Food and Drug Administration in the first Trump administration). James despises (though he is far too nice a guy ever to use that word) the censorship games the Biden administration played against me and others. He knows where the focus of a settlement should be.

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One side note unrelated to any of this: if you are an Unreported Truths subscriber who uses American Express, you may have gotten a fraud notice as your subscription rolls over. Amex apparently doesn’t like the fact that my company is named Blue Deep. It is, though. So, please, decline the fraud warning (assuming you still want to subscribe)…

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(Original story, from five hours ago.)