‘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
‘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
"To the extent there remain any disputes as to compliance, the parties shall identify agency officials, employees or other witnesses who can testify under oath about those disputes."
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.
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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.
If you live in a blue state, call a red state legislator and tell them you’re one of their constituents and voters. The whole system is bullshit anyway.
To be fair, phone call records would show how many of those calls actually came from out of the district or state.
We already have Johnson and other apologists already framing the town hall incidents as a bunch of Democrat rabble-rousers pretending to be Republicans. The last thing we need to give them is proof that Democrats are doing just that.
Having an out of state cell phone as your only number can't be ruled out. They'll ignore you anyway though.
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?
Then it still comes down to whether the cops will actually do their job and arrest said person or not. If they will, then that person rots in prison for contempt of court, which isn't something Trump can pardon
Until he does anyway and the Supreme Court says he can.
Your statement assumes that prior laws and norms still matter when the person you're talking about is actively shitting on those laws to the thunderous applause of the other branches of government.
And if nobody was willing to arrest Trump when he was a private citizen committing crimes on the daily, what makes you think they're going to do it to one of Trump's lapdogs when the man is literally the President of the United States and the Supreme Court has already said he can pretty much do what he wants?
That's contempt and a president can't pardon you for that. You'd be at risk for 179 days in county and huge fines that also cannot be pardoned and it goes to judicial tribunal for appeal.
That’s contempt and a president can’t pardon you for that. You’d be at risk for 179 days in county and huge fines that also cannot be pardoned and it goes to judicial tribunal for appeal.
You continue to think Trump cares about the rule of law.
He'll demand the lawyer's release. Judge will say no. He'll sue. At most, we'll get some appelate ruling that says he's not going to dismiss the contempt charge, but he is going to let the laywer walk free while the case proceeds. It'll go up to the Supreme Court where they'll just rule that contempt charges are pardonable, then it'll all go away. Have you not been paying attention for the past month? The guy does not care about the rule of law, the Supreme Court already ruled that he doesn't have to, and Congress isn't going to do a damn thing about it.
These people weren't willing to hold Trump to account when he was a private citizen? WTF makes you think they're going to do anything to him while he's POTUS? This isn't the only judge that has been trying to push back on Trump's bullshit. But the only thing they've managed to do so far is to reissue their court orders while adding the legalese equivalent of "pretty please". Show me where these judges are threatening actual consequences for these actions and somebody actually willing to enforce them. Because all I've seen is a bunch of judges making empty threats, Trump saying "Fuck you, and what are you going to do about it", and a whole bunch of people with a whole lot of nothing for answers.
I don't actually. I think the judiciary is quite capable of killing a presidency let alone a president.
Appeals courts have exactly zero to do with contempt the only ones who can deal with that are other judges. Again it has nothing to do with the guy and everything to do with other branches of government fighting to keep their power so they aren't expendable.
And yet you're knowingly basing crazy arguments of ignorance from empty words.
It's a Federal Judge, so they can ignore the bench warrant and get a pardon.
They cannot. Us Marshalls don't give a good goddamn about a pardon you can only get after the fact. Post facto pardons are a legal question that isn't fully answered but most sources say it's criminal conspiracy which no the president couldn't be charged with but literally any and every state could charge whomever one by one at the state level.
US Marshals report to the DOJ, which is part of the executive branch, all Trump needs to do is instruct the DOJ to stand down.
A. Technically yes but in practice no. They're enforcement specifically at the behest of the judiciary, they are wildly unconcerned about whatever bullshit any other LE agency is up to and for that matter the executive branch as a whole.
B. They're the least political enforcement agency, they'll tell him to fuck himself because the oath to the constitution comes first.
C. They literally swear to ignore politics and execute whatever executive process is before them.
D. They've had armed standoffs with other three letter agencies specifically about not doing their job, after Ruby ridge they go out of their way to not be seen as biased or political.
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.
I don't know that because that isn't thing.
Contempt is judicial and unpardonable, and preemptive pardons aren't likely to be held as legitimate.
A King could preemptively absolve someone of a crime that isn't however how our government is ran and it's super duper unlikely the judicial would rule in favor of removing all their power altogether.
Apparently you haven't been paying attention over the last month, have you?
I have been, apparently that's your best argument which is.... Something I guess.
Being cynical isn't an argument.
Contempt is, as a matter of fact, not a pardonable offense. The lawyer can be taken into custody by the court staff and held, by the courts until the contempt offense is resolved.
Contempt is, as a matter of fact, not a pardonable offense.
Until six months ago, the President of the United States was, as a matter of fact, not immune from prosecution. You're trying to enforce rules on the exact people who have the power to change those rules at will. If the Supreme Court decides tomorrow that contempt is a pardonable offense, it's a pardonable offense.
The lawyer can be taken into custody by the court staff and held, by the courts until the contempt offense is resolved.
The court system was unwilling to hold Trump in contenpt of court when he was a private citizen. And that was after directly violating court orders ten fucking times.
Do you honestly think, for one fucking second, that any judge is going to try to hold one of Trump's cronies in contempt for doing Trump's bidding? Because if so, I have beachfront property on Mars that you may be interested in. We literally have a random dude from South Africa firing federal workers by the tens of thousands, answering any attempt at accountability by telling those trying to hold him accountable to go fuck themselves, working with a President who has already committed several direct violations of multiple amendments to the US Constitution, and you think a contempt charge for some random lawyer is going to be the bridge too far?
Are any of these people being held accountable for their crimes? Fucking lol nope. All three branches of our government have largely stepped aside and just said "Go right ahead, sir." The fuck makes you think one of these judges is even going to issue an order holding one of these people in contempt? And what the fuck makes you think that this administration is going to abide by it?
Remember, the Judicial branch has zero enforcement power. Enforcement is reliant on the DOJ. What do you think is going to be the result there?
A judgement made by the court can be revoked and reinterpreted by the same judiciary, it's the basis of the judicial system.
What judicial system? You have a king and it's lackeys lol
That remains to be seen for the most part.
We certainly have an idiot with too much power, long not so much yet.