Two Brief But Important Swamp Draining Updates
I was just listening to Judge Nap’s Intel roundup with Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern. LJ mentioned that he has heard from a source he considers reliable that the Trump team has traced $49 billion that was given to Ukraine but somehow wound up in bank accounts in the Caribbean. One suspects that this could prove to be the tip of an iceberg when all is said and done. Corruption and money laundering between the US and Ukraine was spectacular but almost certainly not unique.
The other item is explained in this article at Red State, which cites Margot Cleveland as authority:
Judges Modification to USAID Order Fits a Pattern That Is Worth Watching
The long and the short of this is that in at several of the funding cut off cases where TROs were entered, the little noticed wording of the order provides that Trump can do anything legal (DUH!). The point is, most grants/contracts provide that the government can cancel for many reasons or just because. Thus many of these tough sounding TROs were entered for the PR splash but are basically toothless:
Margot Cleveland @ProfMJCleveland
BREAKING: Court enters TRO barring Trump from freezing federal grant funding unless allowed by grant! An absolutely ridiculous order because it is a "comply with the law injunction" and also alternative mechanism to enforce so APA doesn't provide claim. 1/
So, Trump Administration needs to have staffer pull grants cancelled related to these plaintiffs, confirm it has provisions that allow grant to be canceled (which is likely all of them) and that is compliance.
Margot Cleveland @ProfMJCleveland
Judge in case denies stay pending appeal. Court's reasoning based on his huge walk back of what he really enjoined saying basically "oh, I've only ordered you to not do what you can't legally do." 1/
5:30 PM · Feb 12, 2025
Lot of winning going on for the long term. The Swamp is grasping for straws, but some of the judges—cited also by Cleveland—are getting annoyed at having their time wasted on stupid TROs.
Government contracts are often awarded with the ability of the government to terminate for convenience. Typically the government can terminate at any time for any reason and usually just pays for the costs to shut down the contract. The contractor cannot sue the government. Termination for convenience happens a lot.
Also, if there are no statutory provisions specifying how money must be spent, and discretion is left to the Executive Branch, which it often is, then the Executive can repurpose the money. Congress should consider not giving so much power to the Executive if they want control over exactly how money is spent.
“Corruption and money laundering between the US and Ukraine was spectacular…” and of course the reason Zhou and his A-Zionist minions never showed any interest in ending this war…also the reason for Trump’s no 1 or 2 (too many to count) impeachment- he was going to dig into all that lucre and corruption. The DS - both Euro and US - can run, but they can’t hide. Question is now: are the Euros going to pick a fight with the US? De Gaulle must be spinning in his grave.