The federal funding freeze never rested on anything approaching firm legal footing, so when the administration swiftly issued a retraction before Judge McConnell of the District of Rhode Island was set to hear the matter, that seemed to be the end of this farcical episode. But it was actually the beginning of an even dumber legal strategy that has now imploded like one of Elon’s rockets.
All because the new White House Press Secretary decided to head to social media to brag that the administration would never back down and appears to have accidentally admitted that the administration was trying to defraud the court all along.
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Oops.
That’s the Press Secretary explaining that they really only retracted the memo but not the policy. What does that even mean? Nothing coherent, but the tea leaf reading is that the White House thought that it could bypass the court challenge if they just removed the paper trail.
Or Leavitt has no idea what she’s doing and is free to make public statements on behalf of the administration on matters before the courts without oversight from any lawyers.
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Either way, it really makes you wonder if any attorneys over there have any clue what they’re doing.
And it didn’t take long for the court to recognize this ploy as legally meritless, calling out Leavitt specifically in the process.
It’s going to be a wild few years.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.