With just barely two weeks back in office under his belt, it seems that Donald Trump is already making it clear to the world that he really has no intention of following the law.
The media cycle has been dominated in recent days by the Trump Administration’s move to freeze all federal funding — a move that sent millions of Americans citizens and American agencies into chaos and panic as citizens didn’t know what social programs would potentially be effected while government agencies had no clue how to proceed.
A New York federal judge was quick to sink their teeth into the funding freeze, issuing a temporary restraining order that served to stop the Office of Management and Budget freeze originally issued by Trump that would have seen the US stop paying its bills and immediately cease federal spending that had already previously been approved by Congress.
Today, the Trump Department of Justice filed a formal response to the New York federal judge’s restraining order.
That filing reads, “Given that the Plaintiffs only challenged the OMB Memorandum, Defendants do not read the Order to prevent the President or his advisors from communicating with federal agencies or the public about the President’s priorities regarding federal spending. Nor do Defendants construe the Order as enjoining the President’s Executive Orders, which are plainly lawful and unchallenged in this case.”
The end of the disturbing filing, which features the signature of acting Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, reads, “Further, Defendants do not read the Order as imposing compliance obligations on federal agencies that are not Defendants in this case. Defendants respectfully request that the Court notify Defendants if they have misunderstood the intended scope of the Court’s Order.”
Legal journalist and expert Cristian Farias with The Inquest warned that the new Trump DOJ filing, particularly the final details included in that filing, “suggests the Trump administration is ready to … ignore the court.”
The Justice Department has officially filed this notice in the docket for this case: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…
In a separate filing, DOJ suggests the Trump administration is ready to … ignore the court. See Page 2:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…
— Cristian Farias (@cristianfarias.com) February 3, 2025 at 8:52 AM
You can read the full filing submitted by the Trump DOJ here.
Featured image via The Resistance Report Gallery