White House violated court order to unfreeze federal funding, judge rules

A federal judge found the Trump administration violated his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants.

The ruling by Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to “immediately take every step necessary” to follow the temporary restraining order, including clearing any administrative, operational or technical hurdles to implementation.

The judge ordered the Trump administration to “immediately restore withheld funds, including those federal funds appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act.

The White House said in court documents that it was making good-faith efforts to comply with the judge’s ruling.

However, the White House acknowledged it understood what his initial temporary restraining order issued on Jan. 29 required, which the pauses in funding violate, Judge McConnel said. The earlier ruling ordered the Trump administration not to “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate” money that Congress had already allocated to the states.

The Trump administration now pleas “that they are just trying to root out fraud,” the order said. “But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud.”

The broad categorical order and sweeping of federal funds is likely unconstitutional, the Court found, and “has caused irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”

The temporary restraining order also blocks the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the judge said.

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