3d ago

FEMA official ignores judge's latest order, demands freeze on grant funding

www.nbcnews.com FEMA official ignores judge's latest order, demands freeze on grant funding

Federal workers are being swept into the fight between Donald Trump and federal courts, with four FEMA aides fired Tuesday for being "deep state activists."

Summary

A senior FEMA official froze grant funding despite a federal judge’s order to resume payments.

Stacey Street, FEMA’s Grant Administration director, emailed subordinates to freeze awards in an urgent email just after the judge’s order.

The freeze affected programs for emergency preparedness, homeland security, firefighting, church security, and tribal safety.

Trump called for FEMA's termination, criticizing its aid distribution. The White House defended Trump's executive authority, rejecting court injunctions as politically motivated.

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26 comments

So throw her into jail under contempt of court until she complies.
You can't pardon that shit.
She 100% is a hard core Karen too. Look up her photograph lmao.
She's called the cops on quite a few uppity neighbors having a barbecue.
And you know what I mean by uppity.
- Who is going to arrest her? That’s under the purview of the DOJ, which has been more or less seized by Trump as well
  
  Exactly. Who the fuck is going to stop them? You want to hit them with another lawsuit and say they should go into time-out? Legal orders mean nothing anymore. Everyone will carry on listening to their direct supervisor because they don’t want to get fired sooner. Just following orders here, boss.
  
  Best case: Put out a warrant for their arrest. Step two, wait for the doj to not do their job. Raise hell about it, hopefully American citizens still care, get Congress to do their job, impeach the president (again)
  That's all predicated on citizens knowing enough about how the government is supposed to work to be outraged.
  They have to try though.
  
  The president ignored a court order. Another impeachment will be characterized as a coup. And the Jan6ers will happily show up with guns to defend the president.
  The president is willingly ignoring the constitution. Why would he care about impeachment and maybe removal? He’ll just call it illegal or something
  
  Yeah I don't have high hopes for our institutions, and I'm probably in a strong state of denial. I just want something to hold out for.
  
  Courts can deputize bailiffs. You ever see an Old West movie where a judge appoints a posse to round up a criminal? That's something courts can do. I'm sure there are no shortage of currently out of work federal employees who would be more than willing to volunteer for the job. And I'm sure you would have no problem finding people willing to donate firearms to arm these bailiffs as necessary.
  The only reason we haven't seen violence already is that people are afraid of being arrested and thrown in prison themselves. The fed workers know full well that what Musk is doing is incredibly illegal. The only reason he hasn't been lynched by a gang of angry fed employees is that no one wants to go to jail forever. But if they are simply enforcing court orders, and are legally empowered to use force to stop these people? Well now they have the full power of the law behind them, and they aren't facing personal criminal liability. The courts need to deputize large numbers of bailiffs and haul Musk and his goons into court, at bayonet point if necessary.
  
  What if Trump pardons Musk?
  
  It wouldn't matter in this case. If someone violates courts enough, they can be actually indicted and charged with crimes for that. If someone was convicted on a charge of obstruction of justice, then the president could pardon them of that conviction.
  But I'm not talking about charging people with obstruction of justice. Judges can't even indict people on their own without the cooperation of the executive. What I'm talking about is the enforcement powers courts have outside of convictions, the powers of contempt of court.
  For example, let's say you come in for a traffic ticket in your local county courthouse. When your case comes up, you don't even try to engage with the judge. You just start calling the judge every name and curse word in the book, and you threaten to kill him and his family. The judge at that point can simply throw you in the court's jail cell. He doesn't need to convict you of anything. He can just say, "you know what, I'm going to hold you until you respect this court and agree to engage with the process." That kind of holding can't be pardoned. You can't be pardoned for that, because you haven't been charged or convicted of anything. This kind of hold is constitutional because you hold the keys to your own cell. All you have to do to get out is to stop being a jackass to the judge. A judge holding you in contempt of court can't be pardoned by the governor or president.
  That is what I'm suggesting the courts do on a large scale. You don't try and convict Musk and his goons of anything. If they continue to violate court orders, you just round them all up and lock them up on contempt of court until they agree to abide by court orders. And again, this is constitutional because they can get out at any time, as long as they follow the orders of the court.
  You might need to hold a large number of people this way, but so be it. Be creative. I'm sure the judges can work something out. Maybe the governors of Maryland or Virginia would be willing to offer spaces in their state jails to hold prisoners being held by federal judges on contempt of court charges.
  
  Wait, why not? If words gets to Trump that Musk will be charged with a crime, Trump can give him a preemptive pardon - something that has yet to be challenged as unconstitutional.
  At that point, the point is moot. The process is bypassed, is it not? Musk can start participating but there would be no other consequences
  
  Preemptive pardons have been upheld, if by "preemptive" you mean "pardoning charges have not yet been brought for an act that has occurred in the past." If you mean pardons for future acts, that's a whole different kettle of fish, and even the bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court might not buy that line of bullshit.
  
  There is nothing to pardon, it's just contempt of court.
  
  Elon gets put in jail for contempt of court. Trump pardons him for crimes. Elon starts to cooperate and gets out of jail. The case is over because Trump pardoned him.
  
  There is no case, the case already happened. The court issued a decision, they ignored, so then they are in contempt. There's no crime to litigate, they can leave jail whenever they decide to comply. If they reneg, haul their asses back.
  
  At that point, chances to obtain justice within the formal legal system will be exhausted.
  
  If the authorities refuse to do their job, then the responsibility falls to the People.
  
  US Marshals for contempt of court?
  
  USMS is DOJ
  
  I thought they were under the judicial branch? Their own police force for very specific things?
  Edit: guess not looking at this email on their page mailto:us.marshals@usdoj.gov
  
  Judges can deputize someone.
- So throw her into jail under contempt of court until she complies.
  Punitive contempt.

26 comments