Alina Habba is back, baby. And she’s better than ever!
And by “better” we mean even more hilariously indignant and wrong about the law than when she was just a rich bitch harassing a waitress at the breakfast bar.
Here she is on Fox this morning doing her best 90s mean girl act in an attempt to dunk on Senator Chuck Schumer.
“First, Chuck, your attorney general is not the attorney general. We have an attorney general. That would be Pam Bondi,” she huffed. “And what your opinion is on what the law is doesn’t really matter. It’s what the White House Counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says.”
Habba’s interpretive dance was in support of Trump’s wildly illegal freeze on virtually all federal loans and grants. As first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, the Office of Management and Budget put out a memo yesterday “pausing” the disbursement of already allocated and contracted funds.
The letter starts off strong, suggesting that “In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans.”
The actual spending was $6.75 trillion, but what’s a couple trillion one way or the other, amirite?
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending “wokeness” and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” it went on. “To the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
Yeah, they’re shutting down the government so they can get rid of any mention of “pregnant people” and let Elon Musk take a machete to the budget. Meanwhile, Medicaid and Head Start payment portals are closed down, people in Africa are being cut off from the antiretrovirals that have been keeping them alive, and no one knows if school lunches or Meals on Wheels are going to get the axe. It’s a flagrant violation of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power of the purse, as well as the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which specifies the narrow circumstances under which the president can refuse to spend funds. It’s also a violation of thousands of individual contracts with organizations which are counting on getting the money.
Meanwhile, among the people with the actual power to set the federal budget, there seems to be general confusion — or a group decision to fake it, anyway — about whether the federal appropriations bill is really A LAW.
But our pal Alina is an IRL lawyer, or plays one on TV anyway. And so she should understand that the last word on LAW, HOW DOES IT GO??? does not belong to the White House Counsel or even the Attorney General — although seeing the amazing horseshit they’re going to cook up to defend this clusterfuck may be worth the price of admission. (JK, it will not.)
Luckily, it’s just Fox, so the only pushback she got was from a dead-eyed John Roberts (the reporter, not the feckless jurist at One First Street), who pointed out that Pam Bondi hasn’t been confirmed yet.
In the meantime, everyone and their mother is filing suit to stop this insane power grab. Maybe the White House will deputize Habba to defend them. Her record is less than stellar, but she’s willing to say literally any dumb thing, so…
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
The post Alina Habba Did What She Does Best (Lie) appeared first on Above the Law.
Alina Habba is back, baby. And she’s better than ever!
And by “better” we mean even more hilariously indignant and wrong about the law than when she was just a rich bitch harassing a waitress at the breakfast bar.
Here she is on Fox this morning doing her best 90s mean girl act in an attempt to dunk on Senator Chuck Schumer.
“First, Chuck, your attorney general is not the attorney general. We have an attorney general. That would be Pam Bondi,” she huffed. “And what your opinion is on what the law is doesn’t really matter. It’s what the White House Counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says.”
Habba’s interpretive dance was in support of Trump’s wildly illegal freeze on virtually all federal loans and grants. As first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, the Office of Management and Budget put out a memo yesterday “pausing” the disbursement of already allocated and contracted funds.
The letter starts off strong, suggesting that “In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans.”
The actual spending was $6.75 trillion, but what’s a couple trillion one way or the other, amirite?
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending “wokeness” and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” it went on. “To the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
Yeah, they’re shutting down the government so they can get rid of any mention of “pregnant people” and let Elon Musk take a machete to the budget. Meanwhile, Medicaid and Head Start payment portals are closed down, people in Africa are being cut off from the antiretrovirals that have been keeping them alive, and no one knows if school lunches or Meals on Wheels are going to get the axe. It’s a flagrant violation of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power of the purse, as well as the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which specifies the narrow circumstances under which the president can refuse to spend funds. It’s also a violation of thousands of individual contracts with organizations which are counting on getting the money.
Meanwhile, among the people with the actual power to set the federal budget, there seems to be general confusion — or a group decision to fake it, anyway — about whether the federal appropriations bill is really A LAW.
But our pal Alina is an IRL lawyer, or plays one on TV anyway. And so she should understand that the last word on LAW, HOW DOES IT GO??? does not belong to the White House Counsel or even the Attorney General — although seeing the amazing horseshit they’re going to cook up to defend this clusterfuck may be worth the price of admission. (JK, it will not.)
Luckily, it’s just Fox, so the only pushback she got was from a dead-eyed John Roberts (the reporter, not the feckless jurist at One First Street), who pointed out that Pam Bondi hasn’t been confirmed yet.
In the meantime, everyone and their mother is filing suit to stop this insane power grab. Maybe the White House will deputize Habba to defend them. Her record is less than stellar, but she’s willing to say literally any dumb thing, so…
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
