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.
the lawyer knows he’s about to get slapped hard by the court. he also knows admitting that Trump and Co has yet to actually do anything the courts ordered is going to get him disbarred
Trump not complying shouldn’t get him disbarred, but he should resign before trump does something that actually gets him disbarred.
It will if he doesn’t resign, though. And this guy is now between a rock and a hard place. I don’t know if his decisions put him there (IE he coudl be a career civil servant trying to negotiate this bullshit) but so far, it seems like he’s towing the Trump Party Line.
That is something, a small something. I’m getting really skeptical over checks and balances, the constitution, fundamental corruption and graft, government by tantrum and spite …… but at least this is getting to the point of making that lawyer regret his choices. He’s likely to discover the emphasis on “loyalty” is only one way
How does the lawyers bar status tied to a client’s compliance with a spurt order?
Essentially, if a client doesn’t follow a judges orders (the client is the US gov,) and the lawyer can’t get them to comply, they’re supposed to drop the case (and probably the client,)(in this case, that would likely mean a resignation.)
If the lawyer doesn’t…. They’re on the hook and the first step is their license to practice (yeeting that is called “disbarring”).
The reputation harm from this saga is huge- I wouldn’t want to hire a guy so blithely and publicly pissing off a judge.
The reality is he’s likely found himself between a rock and a hard place and is stuck. But lawyers who help their clients break the law …. Don’t stay lawyers. Look at nearly every lawyer who has worked for trump.
He also probably thinks that he is going to get a cushy job for his sacrifice. Hopefully Trump refuses to pay in the end, like normal, and this guy speaks out after getting screwed.
Hopefully, he ends up homeless.
He’ll write a book and go on tour, gotta cash in.
Speaks out to what end? It won’t change the minds of anyone still in trump’s good graces. It’ll give us something to laugh at, that’s about it.