WH Ignores Judge's Orders to restore funding - Judge Sets Deadline Pay by Wednesday

Party of law and order, right, until judge doesn't agree with them and then they jsut don't comply.

What is the judge's remedy with a potus that has immunity?

Trump holds back billions in funding despite court ruling, states tell judge

A federal judge on Thursday said he stood ready to enforce an order he issued blocking President Donald Trump's administration from freezing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance after Democratic-led states said billions of dollars in funding was still being tied up.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, during a virtual court hearing, said state agencies had a "rightful concern" that they were still not able to fully access money nearly a week after he issued his temporary restraining order.

He issued that January 31 order at the behest of Democratic attorneys generals from 22 states and the District of Columbia, determining it was necessary even after the White House's Office of Management and Budget rescinded its wide-ranging directive that had announced the funding freeze.

 

now a deadline has been set to pay the bills

Judge gives Trump administration two days to release billions of dollars in blocked foreign aid

A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease its funding freeze.
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U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali on Feb. 13 had ordered the administration at least temporarily to get funding flowing again, including to make good on its bills. Despite the order, USAID staffers and the businesses and nonprofit groups say they know of no payments that have gotten through.
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“I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this: Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before Feb. 13," the judge asked Indraneel Sur, the lawyer for the government. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?” “I’m not in a position to answer that,” Sur said.
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It’s the second time a judge has found the Trump administration did not follow a court order. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island also found this month that the administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans within the U.S., even after he blocked sweeping plans for a pause on trillions of dollars in government spending.

 

now that he has set a hard deadline I assume that it makes it much easier to hold them in contempt

it will be interesting to see if roberts or others chimes in before then to remind potus that this is a lawful court order that they are compelled to follow

Court hearing goes 'exceptionally badly' for Trump DOJ as judge loses patience: reporter

"This continues to be going exceptionally badly for DOJ, which can't seem to give a straight answer to the judge's questions here: 'We’re now 12 days in ... You can’t answer me whether any funds that you kind of acknowledged are covered by the court’s order have been unfrozen?'" Cheney wrote in a follow-up post on BlueSky.

At the end of the hearing, reported Politico's Josh Gerstein, Ali sided with the plaintiffs in the case and said that bills related to USAID that were incurred before February 13 must be paid by midnight on Wednesday.

 

administration found in contempt of a lawful court order

constitutional crisis

how does court enforce a court order when executive branch with enforcement authority refuses to comply with the court order?

 

WH claims that they have cancelled contracts and therefore cannot pay them and does not have sufficent time to pay. more lies and delays

it appears that they will be in contempt at midnight

Trump administration says it has canceled most foreign aid contracts | Reuters

In a related development on Wednesday, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put Ali's order on hold. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening denied the administration's request to pause Ali's order.
Lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department have maintained that the administration has a right to suspend its agreements while it reviews them to determine whether they comply with administration policy.

That review is now complete, the administration said in its new filing. It said USAID has made final decisions to cancel nearly 5,800 awards, while keeping more than 500, and that the State Department has canceled about 4,100 awards, while keeping about 2,700.

An administration official said in an earlier court filing that grounds for terminating contracts include that they were related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts, or were deemed wasteful. Trump has taken a hard line on programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, signing an executive order in his second day in office last month directing federal agency chiefs to dismantle DEI policies.

The administration said on Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had ordered that past-due invoices from the plaintiffs for work before January 24, when the payment freeze began, to be "expedited for payment without the ordinary vetting procedures, in a good-faith effort to comply" with Ali's order. It said that while some money would be paid on Wednesday, full payments could take weeks.

 

there is no justification other than trying to avoid a showdown with the executive branch

when the overwhelming majority of the legal community says you are incorrect, well,,see Cannon, and that is the only judge ruling for DT that has been widely questioned. Her and that nutjob int hat small district in Texas where all the abortion cases go for a reason