The Trump administration had a bad night in Boston followed by a lousy morning in Providence, as two courts gave major side eye to the DOJ’s latest legal stylings.
Many people are saying these pleadings are garbage! They come with tears in their eyes and say, Sir, we’ve never seen the Justice Department demand an immediate interlocutory appeal and administrative stay of a TRO that’s been in place less than two weeks.
The latest benchslaps arose in the blue states’ case to block the freeze on dispensing federal funds to people President Trump and Grand Vizier Musk don’t like.
“The Executive Branch has a duty to align federal spending and action with the will of the people as expressed through congressional appropriations, not through ‘Presidential priorities,’” Rhode Island federal Judge John McConnell scolded in the January 31 TRO, reminding the feds that actually Congress has the power of the purse.
And he reiterated that “the plain language of the TRO entered in this case prohibits all categorical pauses or freezes in obligations or disbursements” when he granted the plaintiffs’ emergency motion to enforce after the government was caught blatantly defying the first order. Judge McConnell pointedly noted that parties who defy a court order are risking criminal contempt, even if the order is later reversed.
This appears to have gotten the attention of the DOJ lawyers, who first noticed an appeal of the TRO to the First Circuit, and then threw themselves histrionically onto the courthouse steps in Boston, howling about a “broad incursion on the orderly operation of government and the President’s Article II authority to control the Executive Branch.”
The appellate panel expressed extreme puzzlement as to whether they would even have jurisdiction to impose an administrative stay, but then, assuming that they did, denied it.
“We note in this regard the plaintiffs’ statement in their Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Administrative Stay Pending Appeal that, consistent with the TRO, the February 10 Order “does not stop defendants from limiting access to funds without any ‘preclearance’ from the district court ‘on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms,’” they wrote.
Meanwhile back in Providence, the government was in a bit of a sticky wicket. Because Elon Musk and his army of DOGE bros claimed to have discovered FEMA paying to put illegal immigrants up in luxury hotels. That was bullshit — if you can even believe it! — but the brother in douche over at FEMA immediately promised to put an end to it and fire the responsible parties.
Darn you Congress with your filthy BILLS!
This forced the DOJ to tiptoe back to Judge McConnell and “request that the Court provide ‘targeted relief’ from its Orders, confirming that FEMA may continue ‘withholding funds due to specific authority.’”
This was accompanied by a declaration from FEMA bro Hamilton which strangely made no mention of Musk’s false claims. Instead it referred to “media reports, the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua has taken over the hotel [being used to house migrants] and is using it as a recruiting center and base of operations to plan a variety of crimes.”
That claim is sourced to a New York Post article based on Spanish language TikToks and a report from a local ABC affiliate which quotes one NYPD detective claiming that there are a handful of teen and tween pickpockets who live at Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan where migrants seeking asylum are being housed under FEMA’s Shelter and Service Programs.
“According to these same reports, these crimes include gun and drug sales as well as sex trafficking, which can reasonably be presumed to be conducted in the hotel itself,” Cameron assures the court, citing as evidence articles from the National Review and Fox News.
Cameron purported to have “paused funding quickly in this matter to protect that funding from the potential for its misuse for the illegal activity described above.” But in fact it turns out that he’d done one better than that.
According to a statement from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the Trump administration siphoned off $80 million from the City’s bank account, retroactively defunding the contract:
This morning, my financial team shockingly uncovered that President Trump and his crony Elon Musk illegally executed a revocation of $80 million in congressionally-appropriated FEMA funding from New York City’s bank accounts late yesterday afternoon. This is money that the federal government previously disbursed for shelter and services and is now missing. This highway robbery of our funds directly out of our bank account is a betrayal of everyone who calls New York City home.
Lander called on Mayor Eric Adams to do something about it. Adams, who just so happens to have had his bribery charges dropped without prejudice this week, has said that it would be better not to criticize the Trump administration publicly.
And in the meantime, Judge McConnell denied the DOJ’s request to bless FEMA’s actions retroactively, noting that the government is perfectly entitled to cancel contracts if, as it warrants, it intends to provide “notice to New York City regarding the funding pause and will provide the information and process required by regulation and the terms and conditions of the award.”
Gonna take a wild shot in the dark that stealing $80 million from a commercial bank account and unilaterally cutting off funding is not the “routine process” laid out in the agreement.
Anyway, enjoy your constitutional crisis courtesy of “our judicial branch.”
New York v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
The post FEMA Steals $80M From NYC, Dares Courts To Do Something About It appeared first on Above the Law.
The Trump administration had a bad night in Boston followed by a lousy morning in Providence, as two courts gave major side eye to the DOJ’s latest legal stylings.
Many people are saying these pleadings are garbage! They come with tears in their eyes and say, Sir, we’ve never seen the Justice Department demand an immediate interlocutory appeal and administrative stay of a TRO that’s been in place less than two weeks.
The latest benchslaps arose in the blue states’ case to block the freeze on dispensing federal funds to people President Trump and Grand Vizier Musk don’t like.
“The Executive Branch has a duty to align federal spending and action with the will of the people as expressed through congressional appropriations, not through ‘Presidential priorities,’” Rhode Island federal Judge John McConnell scolded in the January 31 TRO, reminding the feds that actually Congress has the power of the purse.
And he reiterated that “the plain language of the TRO entered in this case prohibits all categorical pauses or freezes in obligations or disbursements” when he granted the plaintiffs’ emergency motion to enforce after the government was caught blatantly defying the first order. Judge McConnell pointedly noted that parties who defy a court order are risking criminal contempt, even if the order is later reversed.
This appears to have gotten the attention of the DOJ lawyers, who first noticed an appeal of the TRO to the First Circuit, and then threw themselves histrionically onto the courthouse steps in Boston, howling about a “broad incursion on the orderly operation of government and the President’s Article II authority to control the Executive Branch.”
The appellate panel expressed extreme puzzlement as to whether they would even have jurisdiction to impose an administrative stay, but then, assuming that they did, denied it.
“We note in this regard the plaintiffs’ statement in their Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Administrative Stay Pending Appeal that, consistent with the TRO, the February 10 Order “does not stop defendants from limiting access to funds without any ‘preclearance’ from the district court ‘on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms,’” they wrote.
Meanwhile back in Providence, the government was in a bit of a sticky wicket. Because Elon Musk and his army of DOGE bros claimed to have discovered FEMA paying to put illegal immigrants up in luxury hotels. That was bullshit — if you can even believe it! — but the brother in douche over at FEMA immediately promised to put an end to it and fire the responsible parties.
Darn you Congress with your filthy BILLS!
This forced the DOJ to tiptoe back to Judge McConnell and “request that the Court provide ‘targeted relief’ from its Orders, confirming that FEMA may continue ‘withholding funds due to specific authority.’”
This was accompanied by a declaration from FEMA bro Hamilton which strangely made no mention of Musk’s false claims. Instead it referred to “media reports, the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua has taken over the hotel [being used to house migrants] and is using it as a recruiting center and base of operations to plan a variety of crimes.”
That claim is sourced to a New York Post article based on Spanish language TikToks and a report from a local ABC affiliate which quotes one NYPD detective claiming that there are a handful of teen and tween pickpockets who live at Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan where migrants seeking asylum are being housed under FEMA’s Shelter and Service Programs.
“According to these same reports, these crimes include gun and drug sales as well as sex trafficking, which can reasonably be presumed to be conducted in the hotel itself,” Cameron assures the court, citing as evidence articles from the National Review and Fox News.
Cameron purported to have “paused funding quickly in this matter to protect that funding from the potential for its misuse for the illegal activity described above.” But in fact it turns out that he’d done one better than that.
According to a statement from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the Trump administration siphoned off $80 million from the City’s bank account, retroactively defunding the contract:
This morning, my financial team shockingly uncovered that President Trump and his crony Elon Musk illegally executed a revocation of $80 million in congressionally-appropriated FEMA funding from New York City’s bank accounts late yesterday afternoon. This is money that the federal government previously disbursed for shelter and services and is now missing. This highway robbery of our funds directly out of our bank account is a betrayal of everyone who calls New York City home.
Lander called on Mayor Eric Adams to do something about it. Adams, who just so happens to have had his bribery charges dropped without prejudice this week, has said that it would be better not to criticize the Trump administration publicly.
And in the meantime, Judge McConnell denied the DOJ’s request to bless FEMA’s actions retroactively, noting that the government is perfectly entitled to cancel contracts if, as it warrants, it intends to provide “notice to New York City regarding the funding pause and will provide the information and process required by regulation and the terms and conditions of the award.”
Gonna take a wild shot in the dark that stealing $80 million from a commercial bank account and unilaterally cutting off funding is not the “routine process” laid out in the agreement.
Anyway, enjoy your constitutional crisis courtesy of “our judicial branch.”
New York v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
