{"id":102081,"date":"2025-01-28T16:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T00:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/28\/alina-habba-did-what-she-does-best-lie\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T00:04:13","slug":"alina-habba-did-what-she-does-best-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/28\/alina-habba-did-what-she-does-best-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Alina Habba Did What She Does Best (Lie)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson \u2013 Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alina Habba is back, baby. And she\u2019s better than ever! <\/p>\n

And by \u201cbetter\u201d we mean even more hilariously indignant and wrong about the law than when she was just a rich bitch harassing a waitress<\/a> at the breakfast bar.<\/p>\n

Here she is on Fox this morning doing her best 90s mean girl act in an attempt to dunk on Senator Chuck Schumer.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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Alina Habba on Sen. Chuck Schumer calling Trump’s funding order unconstitutional: “What your opinion is \u2014 on what the law is \u2014 doesn’t really matter. It’s what the white house counsel says and what the attorney general says.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nikki McCann Ram\u00edrez (@nikkimcr.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-01-28T19:33:52.580Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cFirst, Chuck, your attorney general is not the<\/em> attorney general. We have an attorney general. That would be Pam Bondi,\u201d she huffed. \u201cAnd what your opinion is on what the law is doesn\u2019t really matter. It\u2019s what the White House Counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habba\u2019s interpretive dance was in support of Trump\u2019s wildly illegal freeze on virtually all federal loans and grants. As first reported<\/a> by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, the Office of Management and Budget put out a memo<\/a> yesterday \u201cpausing\u201d the disbursement of already allocated and contracted funds.<\/p>\n

The letter starts off strong, suggesting that \u201cIn 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actual spending was $6.75 trillion<\/a>, but what\u2019s a couple trillion one way or the other, amirite<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial 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 \u201cwokeness\u201d and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,\u201d it went on. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, they\u2019re shutting down the government so they can get rid of any mention of \u201cpregnant people\u201d and let Elon Musk take a machete to the budget. Meanwhile, Medicaid and Head Start payment portals are closed down<\/a>, people in Africa are being cut off<\/a> 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\u2019s a flagrant violation<\/a> 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\u2019s also a violation of thousands of individual contracts with organizations which are counting on getting the money.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, among the people with the actual power<\/em> to set the federal budget, there seems to be general confusion \u2014 or a group decision to fake it, anyway \u2014 about whether the federal appropriations bill is really A LAW.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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Talked to a bunch of House Rs this AM in Doral about the WH move to freeze federal aid. Many are defending Trump \u2014 including the chairman of House Appropriations Committee, Tom Cole, who told me he doesn\u2019t \u201chave a problem\u201d with the White House decision pause the aid.
\u00a0
\u201cI think\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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 \u2014 although seeing the amazing horseshit they\u2019re going to cook up to defend this clusterfuck may be worth the price of admission. (JK, it will not.)<\/p>\n

Luckily, it\u2019s 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\u2019t been confirmed yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s willing to say literally any dumb thing, so\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Alina Habba Did What She Does Best (Lie)<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson \u2013 Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alina Habba is back, baby. And she\u2019s better than ever! <\/p>\n

And by \u201cbetter\u201d we mean even more hilariously indignant and wrong about the law than when she was just a rich bitch harassing a waitress<\/a> at the breakfast bar.<\/p>\n

Here she is on Fox this morning doing her best 90s mean girl act in an attempt to dunk on Senator Chuck Schumer.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Alina Habba on Sen. Chuck Schumer calling Trump’s funding order unconstitutional: “What your opinion is \u2014 on what the law is \u2014 doesn’t really matter. It’s what the white house counsel says and what the attorney general says.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/div>\n

Nikki McCann Ram\u00edrez (@nikkimcr.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-01-28T19:33:52.580Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cFirst, Chuck, your attorney general is not the<\/em> attorney general. We have an attorney general. That would be Pam Bondi,\u201d she huffed. \u201cAnd what your opinion is on what the law is doesn\u2019t really matter. It\u2019s what the White House Counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habba\u2019s interpretive dance was in support of Trump\u2019s wildly illegal freeze on virtually all federal loans and grants. As first reported<\/a> by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, the Office of Management and Budget put out a memo<\/a> yesterday \u201cpausing\u201d the disbursement of already allocated and contracted funds.<\/p>\n

The letter starts off strong, suggesting that \u201cIn 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actual spending was $6.75 trillion<\/a>, but what\u2019s a couple trillion one way or the other, amirite<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial 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 \u201cwokeness\u201d and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,\u201d it went on. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, they\u2019re shutting down the government so they can get rid of any mention of \u201cpregnant people\u201d and let Elon Musk take a machete to the budget. Meanwhile, Medicaid and Head Start payment portals are closed down<\/a>, people in Africa are being cut off<\/a> 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\u2019s a flagrant violation<\/a> 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\u2019s also a violation of thousands of individual contracts with organizations which are counting on getting the money.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, among the people with the actual power<\/em> to set the federal budget, there seems to be general confusion \u2014 or a group decision to fake it, anyway \u2014 about whether the federal appropriations bill is really A LAW.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 although seeing the amazing horseshit they\u2019re going to cook up to defend this clusterfuck may be worth the price of admission. (JK, it will not.)<\/p>\n

Luckily, it\u2019s 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\u2019t been confirmed yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s willing to say literally any dumb thing, so\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson \u2013 Pool\/Getty Images) Alina Habba is back, baby. And she\u2019s better than ever! And by \u201cbetter\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":102071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2194442163-abJSDK.jpeg?fit=594%2C396&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}