Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s court filing was rebuked by a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump, who said that it was likely created by artificial intelligence and cited a case that does not exist. The judge did not rule out sanctions in the future.
Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou of the Western District of Michigan issued the order Wednesday in an immigration bond dispute.
Blanche served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney before becoming the government’s top law enforcement officer. He is currently awaiting Senate confirmation as permanent attorney general.
The case involved an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee named Izzeddin Daghra, who had been granted a $35,000 bond by an immigration judge, according to the order. The government put that bond on hold while it appealed — keeping him locked up in the meantime, the order said.
In a legal brief filed in May 2026, Blanche’s team argued the court had no authority to intervene, the order said. It cited a Sixth Circuit case called Taylor v. Hott to back up that claim.
The case does not exist.
“The cited case, Taylor v. Hott, is not located at the identified page of the Federal Appendix,” Jarbou wrote in the order.
That page, the judge found, actually contained an unrelated ruling about commercial arbitration — not immigration bond decisions. No federal case with that caption or quoted language could be found anywhere, Jarbou wrote.
“It seems this citation was likely produced by generative artificial intelligence,” Jarbou wrote.
Court records show every government filing in the case — including the one with the fake citation — was submitted “by Todd Blanche.”
Courts across the country have flagged AI-generated fake citations in more than 1,000 cases since 2023.
“Although the Court will not presently impose sanctions for this conduct,” Jarbou wrote, leaving open the possibility of future penalties, “it goes without saying that the Government must ensure its future filings with this Court do not include nonexistent case law.”
The case was ultimately dismissed, the order said. The 90-day automatic hold on Daghra’s bond had expired, and the government confirmed he was free to post the $35,000 and go home.
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