Washington Litigation Group
The Washington Litigation Group was founded in 2025 to provide pro bono legal work for individuals and organizations that claimed to be targeted by the Trump administration. 1 The organization is staffed by former judges and attorneys from the Department of Justice. 2 The Washington Litigation Group does not disclose its donors, stating that the group “has received funding from institutions that support democracy.” 3
Contents
Cases
In October 2025 the Washington Litigation Group argued on behalf of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ) to “challenge President Trump‘s unlawful efforts to install his former personal attorney Alina Habba as Acting US Attorney of New Jersey.” 4
On October 24, 2025 the Washington Litigation Group filed a complaint to stop the Trump administration from dissolving the Community Relations Service (CRS) group. 5 CRS is a part of the Department of Justice that was created by the Civil Rights Act in 1964 to ” offer ‘conciliation assistance’ to communities where ‘disputes, disagreements, or difficulties’ threaten ‘peaceful relations among the citizens of the community involved’ regarding ‘discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin.’ ” 6
The influence of and funding for CRS was expanded to include the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, the Emmett Till Act of 2008, and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. 6 The Washington Litigation Group stated it was filing the complaint on behalf of groups such as the NAACP, Ethical Society of Police, and the Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups and Education, among others. 5
Staff
Roy Austin Jr is one of the steering members of the Washington Litigation Group. He was a lawyer for Meta. He also worked with the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division investigating hate crimes and police brutality cases. Austin worked with former President Barack Obama’s Task Force for 21st Century Policing and was a member of the Obama White House’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force. 7
Ellen Segal Huvelle is a steering member of the Washington Litigation Group. Huvelle worked as a trial judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for 20 years. She also spent seven years as a trial judge on the Multidistrict Litigation Panel and Judicial Conference Committee on Criminal Law. 8
John M. Mott is a steering member of the Washington Litigation Group. From 1995-2000 Mott worked as a senior trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice and in 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed him as the Associate Justice on the Superior Court for the District of Columbia where he worked until his retirement. In addition to his work with the Washington Litigation Group, Mott also sits on the board at the Federal Worker Legal Defense Network, another legal nonprofit which provides pro bono work to federal employees. 9
James Pearce is a senior council member at the Washington Litigation Group. Pearce was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice for over a decade and is notable for being one of the leading attorneys in United States v. Trump, the federal case which proposed President Trump was at fault for the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. 10