Federal Prosecutor Ordered to Take Legal Training Over Evidence-Free Claim
A federal prosecutor has been sanctioned, and ordered to undertake at least two hours of legal training, after a district court judge concluded he made a baseless accusation founded on “no evidence” against the lawyer of an Iranian man fighting deportation to his home country.
The ruling was made by Judge Diane J. Humetewa in the U.S. District Court for Arizona against Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooks Chupp. It demonstrates how President Trump’s immigration crackdown has led to legal conflict over the rights of migrants and the arguments their attorneys can make against deportation.
Newsweek contacted Chupp, via the District Court for Arizona public affairs office, and the Department of Justice press office for comment by email on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
The controversy revolves around an Iranian man who entered the United States in January 2025 and attempted to claim asylum on the grounds of being gay, which he said would put him in danger if returned to Iran.
The man, who goes unnamed in Humetewa’s ruling, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made two attempts to deport him back to Iran in November and December of 2025.
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Describing the first incident he said: “I refused to cooperate with the ICE officers. I cried and begged. I told them I cannot go back because they arrested me for being gay and they will execute me. I told them I am not safe and cannot go back.”
In December 2025 Chupp said the Iranian’s lawyer, who isn’t named in the ruling, had attempted to obstruct his deportation by incorrectly arguing he had a pending immigration appeal that prevented deportation. Knowingly making false statements to a federal agency is against the law.
However, the lawyer denied she made this argument and the government later admitted it had no specific records to support this claim.
Humetewa concluded Chupp had violated Rule 11(b)(3) of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which requires attorneys to ensure that factual assertions made in court have supporting evidence.
In the ruling, Humetewa said Chupp had provided “no evidence” to support his claim that the Iranian man’s attorney had falsely said he had a pending immigration appeal to block his deportation. She also said Chupp had failed to reasonably investigate his claim, such as by contacting the lawyer to ask what she has said, and that his conduct amounted to bad faith.
Referring to Chupp’s claim, Humetewa said: “That inference was wholly unreasonable, unsupported by the evidence, and antithetical to the ethical rules that guide attorney conduct.”
Consequently Chupp was ordered to undertake at least one hour of legal education on each of the special role of U.S. attorneys and the need for factual claims to have evidentiary support. The deadline for this is June 30th, 2027.
President Trump has made cracking down on both illegal and certain legal immigration a central plank of his second term in the White House, with his administration declaring a national emergency at the southern border and strengthening deportation policies.
This has seen more migrants deported both to their home countries, and to certain third countries such as Rwanda and Eswatini.
In September a federal appeals court ruled the Trump administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to third countries is unlawful.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
