5mo ago

‘I can’t get a straight answer from you’: Judge loses patience with Trump admin lawyer for repeatedly ignoring court order unfreezing USAID funds, issues harsh evidentiary demands

Judge loses patience with Trump admin for repeatedly ignoring court order

Summary

Federal Judge Amir Ali sharply criticized the Trump administration during a Tuesday hearing for failing to comply with his 12-day-old restraining order to unfreeze USAID contract funding.

"I don't know why I can't get a straight answer from you," the judge demanded, asking if funds had been unfrozen. The government lawyer responded: "I'm not in a position to answer that."

Ali ordered USAID to pay all invoices for work performed before February 13 by midnight tomorrow and required the administration to identify officials who can testify under oath about compliance disputes.

49 comments

Two words:
Or what?
As long as judges don't have an answer for that, they will continue to be brushed off, ignored, misled, and outright lied to by Trump and his team. And right now, I haven't seen any judges putting forth any answers. The reality of the situation is that judges really don't have an answer for that (mostly because the Supreme Court gave Trump all but blanket immunity), but they cannot say it without admitting that they actually have no real power at all. There's literally nothing stopping Trump from telling this judge or any other judge to go pound sand.
The court system is not going to help us. And at the rate things are going, midterm elections are not going to help us. Military intervention is simply not going to happen. Congress is not going to intervene. The one and only thing that we have to hope for is that voters in heavy red districts eventually get so sick of seeing the leopards eating their faces that they actually start to threaten their own Congressmen even more than the MAGA crowd currently does. That's it. They have already repeatedly gone on record (anonymously, but repeatedly) and have said that it is fear that stops them from speaking against Trump. Their voters have to make them even more afraid not to.
- If you live in a red state, you can call your legislators.
  You can lie to them and say you're a republican voter.
  It's not like they don't lie to you.
- the Supreme Court gave Trump all but blanket immunity
  Even "better," they gave blanket immunity to a person who has the power to give blanket immunity for federal crimes. Anything the SCROTUS is willing to consider an "official act" by the president carries no consequences whatsoever for him OR anyone doing his bidding.
  
  While true, in theory (not practice) Congress/Senate would remove the president for not abiding the judges conclusion. The fact that they haven't voted to remove him after 2 weeks shows the constitution (law of the land) is no more.
  
  The state should just wrap all federal buildings in their state with crime scene tape and say it's a state crime to cross it. 10 years in prison no exception without permission to cross!
- Or what? The court issues a bench warrant and demands their presence which they can do to literally anyone who isn't the president.
  The rest is on law enforcement to have enough balls to do as their profession demands.
  
  And when said person tells the courts to go fuck themselves, backed by a President willing to issue a pardon?
  
  It's a Federal Judge, so they can ignore the bench warrant and get a pardon.
  
  You know the president can literally just say: "Lol nope. Pardoned." And that's it, right? That's the point, the law is meaningless if you installed a king as ruler.
the lawyer knows he's about to get slapped hard by the court. he also knows admitting that Trump and Co has yet to actually do anything the courts ordered is going to get him disbarred
- That is something, a small something. I’m getting really skeptical over checks and balances, the constitution, fundamental corruption and graft, government by tantrum and spite ….. but at least this is getting to the point of making that lawyer regret his choices. He’s likely to discover the emphasis on “loyalty” is only one way
- He also probably thinks that he is going to get a cushy job for his sacrifice. Hopefully Trump refuses to pay in the end, like normal, and this guy speaks out after getting screwed.
  
  Speaks out to what end? It won't change the minds of anyone still in trump's good graces. It'll give us something to laugh at, that's about it.
  
  He'll write a book and go on tour, gotta cash in.
- How does the lawyers bar status tied to a client's compliance with a spurt order?
  
  Essentially, if a client doesn’t follow a judges orders (the client is the US gov,) and the lawyer can’t get them to comply, they’re supposed to drop the case (and probably the client,)(in this case, that would likely mean a resignation.)
  If the lawyer doesn’t…. They’re on the hook and the first step is their license to practice (yeeting that is called “disbarring”).
  The reputation harm from this saga is huge- I wouldn’t want to hire a guy so blithely and publicly pissing off a judge.
  The reality is he’s likely found himself between a rock and a hard place and is stuck. But lawyers who help their clients break the law …. Don’t stay lawyers. Look at nearly every lawyer who has worked for trump.
- Trump not complying shouldn’t get him disbarred, but he should resign before trump does something that actually gets him disbarred.
  
  It will if he doesn't resign, though. And this guy is now between a rock and a hard place. I don't know if his decisions put him there (IE he coudl be a career civil servant trying to negotiate this bullshit) but so far, it seems like he's towing the Trump Party Line.
You have to put him in a cell
- That behavior sounds very contemptuous.
Hold his ass in contempt and issue a warrant for his arrest already, you goddamn judicial muppets. It's going to come down to that anyway - might as well yank the band-aid off before it festers.
- Seriously. The judge is worried about the political fallout of doing anything as drastic as like, his job. It could be a real political rallying point, if a judge gets retaliated against. But that might make it hard for the judge to maintain his current lifestyle, and so we just make more concessions to the group committed to destroying even the illusory veil of justice and freedom.
  Absolutely feckless and cowardly
- Not just him, everyone that can be demonstrated as being part of this. We don't just need to deal with Trump (we do) but there are a lot of other people involved too.
- I'm not sure he can and I think the judge isn't sure either.
  I think this might be another one of those things where we were relying on the people electing someone reasonable.
What's that thing called where the court determines you are a petty asshole and can't file things without judicial review? Can we apply that to the government?
- A vexatious litigant
Their goal isn't to answer and prove why they need to do it, their goal is to stall as long as possible because they don't even believe in what they're fighting for beyond furthering Trump's agenda
The more everyone goes at this guy, and the more he comes out unscathed, the more he seems untouchable. Blah.
Haha. The judge knows he has no power to enforce his ridiculous demands. And the Government knows it too. If the judge tries to hold the President in contempt, it won't work, because the president trumps him. Trump can probably have the judge fired. And he should, because the judge should have refused to engage in the case to begin with, knowing that the presidents powers exceed his own.
- You seem way too excited to have a king.
- STF. U.

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