Donald Trump is an unquestioned malignant narcissist who lies with impunity, and for the most part, Republicans parrot him blindly no matter how ridiculous the lie — until they are under oath.
When these prevaricating attorneys and officials face severe penalties, sanctions, or perjury charges, their sworn legal testimonies often directly result is egg on the face.
As Trump’s second term enters its 19 month, many of the dozens of court cases filed against his administration are finally reaching the hearing stage, and officials are singing a different tune before judges or congressional committees.
With the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), The New York Independent has tracked administration officials who lied repeatedly in public only to recant once they were under oath.
It’s not a new phenomenon; lying and backtracking were rife beginning with Trump’s biggest lie of all — the 2020 election was rigged. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Trump continues to repeat this lie today. But it’s cost some of his ardent supporters their careers.
Rudy Giuliani, the long-time Trump pal, personal attorney and campaign legal advisor claimed in repeated news conferences that the 2020 election was stolen through a massive, coordinated conspiracy involving rigged voting machines and millions of illegal votes.
But during a Nov. 2020 federal court hearing in Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann explicitly asked Giuliani if he was alleging fraud. Under the threat of legal sanctions, Giuliani admitted, “This is not a fraud case.”
He later conceded in a defamation lawsuit that his public claims about Georgia election workers manipulating ballots were also legally false. A federal jury in Dec. 2023 awarded $148 million to the two poll workers he falsely accused. Giuliani ultimately settled the case out of court.
A New York appeals court suspended his law license in June 2021 after finding “uncontroverted evidence that he made false statements regarding the 2020 election. (Watch the video)
Sidney Powell, a prominent attorney for the 2020 Trump campaign legal team, repeatedly claimed on television networks that a foreign-engineered plot involving Dominion Voting Systems had switched millions of votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
Dominion sued for defamation, and Powell’s defense attorneys ridiculously argued in a court filing that her public claims should not be taken as “literal facts,” calling her statements “political hyperbole.” In other words, she lied.
In 2021, Federal District Judge Linda Parker officially sanctioned Powell and several other Trump-allied lawyers for filing a frivolous lawsuit based on speculation and lies. The judge ruled that they had profoundly abused the judicial system
Powell was ordered to pay more than $152,000 in legal fees and pleaded to six misdemeanor counts in Georgia for election fraud and was sentenced to six years probation.
Trump Campaign Attorney Kory Langhofer repeated claimed that Arizona election workers in Arizona had systematically rejected or altered legal votes cast for Trump. In Nov, 2020, under oath in court, he explicitly stated: “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. We are not alleging that anyone is stealing the election.”
Trump’s second term has been no less fraught with lying administration liars. Aggressive rhetoric in public and factual admissions in court under oath are frequently diametrically opposed. Administration lawyers routinely walk back high-profile public claims.
In early 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aggressively promoted a hardline policy ban on transgender troops, telling the public it was an absolute restriction on serving in the military.
But in court, to avoid a federal judge’s injunction halting the ban, Justice Department lawyers swore under oath, there was no “ban.” Rather, they claimed, the administration was pursuing a narrow medical regulation addressing gender dysphoria.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, exploded at the lawyers. “The court is not going to be gaslit… “You’re saying one thing in public. You’re saying a different thing in court… The idea that you all can just come in here and pretend that what’s happening isn’t actually happening is totally unacceptable.”
In another infamous scandal, Hegseth faced intense scrutiny after discussing details about military strikes against Houthi targets over during an unscure Signal chat with individuals who did not have proper security clearances.
Following initial denials regarding the operational security breach, the Pentagon pivoted, blaming structural mismanagement for the leak.
Immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is another egregious case study of administration lying. Tump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and others portrayed him as a “dangerous MS-13 gang member” who had been safely and righteously deported to a harsh Salvadoran prison.
In court, the administration admitted it had no evidence liking Garcia to MS-13. Under the treat of legal sanctions, DOJ lawyers attributed his deportation to a mundane “administrative error.”
Trump’s immigration push has been a caldron of lies outed in court.
Federal Protective Service commander Russell Wamsley publicly claimed that hostile protesters had breached security and violently “invaded the lobby” of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. But the the official government narrative collapsed in court.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut ruled that the official’s testimony was not “reliable,” and “completely inconsistent with reality.”
Bondi has been the center of a number of controversies, including the Epstein scandal. She claimed her department was “executing a completely thorough, flawless, and lawful public rollout of investigative records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
She publicly denied that any critical material was being purposefully hidden.
But during a House Oversight Committee investigation, Bondi was forced to officially admit to widespread “redaction errors.”
Highly sensitive personal data and photographs of sexual assault survivors were released, while key files, an unknown number involving Trump, were withheld. In characteristic fashion, Bondi blamed Blanche.
Determined to protect her boss, Bondi claimed during a House hearing under oath vthat “there is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime” regarding the Epstein scandal.
In fact, lawmakers immediately confronted her in the record with documented FBI threat reports and witness statements explicitly naming Trump.
Following the hearing, public database tracking revealed the DOJ had actively removed and withheld portions of the files, prompting congressional leaders to issue formal letters demanding a special counsel investigate Bondi for perjury.
Bondi also claimed under oath that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election “found no evidence, none, of foreign interference.”
The Mueller report explicitly stated that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion.”
Her false statements under oath were later part of formal Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 1105) introduced in the House. She was fired by Trump before the House could move forward.
With Bondi out of the way, Blanche has continued the Epstein Files Transparency Act fiasco fraught, with misstatements, lies and repeated court order violations.
He claimed he was legally restricted from meeting with them without their personal attorneys, but in court he admitted his claim was contradicted federal law and DOJ policy.
During private courtesy meetings with lawmakers, Blanche reportedly stated that the concept of an “independent” DOJ was a “misnomer” because the department exists to carry out the president’s goals.
But during his public confirmation hearing, Blanche shifted his stance and angrily insisted his true obligation was strictly to the American people and the rule of law.
Blanche defended and promoted a proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of a settlement of Trump’s IRS lawsuit, claiming the fund was structured legally using standard government judgment funds to compensate allies.
Blanche walked back that claim during his Senate confirmation hearing, and ultimately signed a formal written order admitting that “there is no fund,” and taxpayer money wouldn’t be used.
Apparently no issue is too small to cover up with lies if it involves Trump’s incompetence or corrupt dealings.
A task as mundane as refurbising the Reflecting Pool on the national mall, blew up into a major scandal after Trump gave a Mar a Lago pal a no bid contract he botched the job. Trump’s official response blamed “vandals” who allegedly slashed a liner with box knives.
Former Fox talking head and U.S. Attorney for the District, Jeanine Pirro. a Trump appointee, ran with the Trump narrative. She announced the arrest of former Olympic cyclist David Hearn claiming he had “willfully, forcefully, and violently ripped up the rubberized sealant on the pool’s bottom.
Pirro claimed her office had “substantial” and “tremendous” evidence to prove the crime and convinced a Grand Jury to indict Hearn on felony vandalism charges. Trump called the incident a prime example of vandalism against national monuments requiring aggressive prosecution.
But as the trial approached, Pirro’s office abruptly filed a 20-page motion to dismiss the indictment. So called “newly reviewed” documents pointed the blame at contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC) for a “rushed and botched installation.”
Instead of accepting responsibility for the fiasco, Pirro deflected blame for misleading the grand jury on the Interior Department.
Trump openly rebuked Pirro on social media and still blames unnamed “vandals” for the damage without evidence, a standard Trump double-down.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett: initially aped Trump’s false claim that grocery prices were “down significantly.” But he recanted the next day on CNN after fact-checkers disproved his claim.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: walked back previous claims he made that a proven causal link existed between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism. Later, he said the association was not definitively proven but merely “suggestive.”
Trump has repeatedly walked back public declarations about the Iran war, After declaring that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not capitulate by a strict deadline, he swiftly walked back the massive escalation threat less than two hours later. He claimed “very friendly negotiations” were actually underway. The weren’t.
Media trackers report that Trump has pubicly insisted as many as 40 times that total victory over Iran had been achieved and an end-of-war deal was imminent. The war is now moving into its sixth month. Trump claimed it would last two weeks.
In a court filing this month, government lawyers directly contradicted previous administration denials regarding political bias in awarding federal funding.
During a public House hearing on June 10, Energy Secretary Chris Wright insisted that grant cancellations were purely administrative. But an agency attorney was forced to formally admit the decisions to terminate scientific grants in California were “based solely” on political retribution against Trump’s rivals.
Lying and mistatments have become standard operating procedure during Trump’s two terms; If not for the courts, the American public would have been routinely misled to cover up administration actions.
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”
