The Washington Post reports that the US Secret Service’s foot-dragging in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed eight years ago by a group of African-American agents (previous MinMon item here) could come back to bite the notoriously secretive and insular agency at a hearing today for a default judgment in the case.

Writes Darryl Fears of the Post:

“The judge presiding over the case, Deborah A. Robinson, has already sanctioned the agency three times for dragging its feet in handing over racially charged e-mails shared by white Secret Service supervisors and for failing to search for documents as ordered by the court. She has also verbally reprimanded government lawyers after they revealed that a paralegal may have burned some documents that were ordered by the court.

“Robinson could use stronger sanctions to punish the Secret Service at today’s hearing, lawyers said. She could issue a summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs that would probably cost taxpayers millions of dollars, she could limit the amount of evidence the agency could use to defend itself against the allegations — that supervisors routinely harassed black agents and refused to promote them to management positions — or she could grant a request by the plaintiffs to try their case without any interference from the Secret Service’s lawyers.”

Read the WashPost story.