A federal judge greenlit a restraining order against the Trump administration Wednesday after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's social media post suggested a disputed funding freeze remained active despite a court injunction.
As a result of a post that was made on social media by Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for the White House, the Trump administration may have just put itself in even more legal difficulty regarding the controversy surrounding federal funding of the government.
Per The Raw Story, the President of the United States began his second week in office by causing a tremendous outcry and disarray. His Office of Management and Budget imposed a federal spending freeze, which looked to illegally withhold funding from dozens of agencies and non-governmental groups that are supported by the federal government.
Trump associates wavered between justifying the policy, which seems to be an effort to circumvent the law prohibiting presidential "impoundment," and denying that it would affect vital programs like Medicaid and Meals on Wheels. Subsequently, OMB withdrew the memo after a federal judge halted the order pending litigation.
On the other hand, that was not the conclusion of the story.
Leavitt made a post on X not long after the rescinding of the agreement, stating that the funding freeze continued to be in effect, which appears to be in contravention of the injunction issued by the federal court.
In her post, she clarified that the intent was to revoke the OMB document and not the government funding freeze. Moreover, she clarified that the purpose of this is to put an end to any misunderstandings caused by the court's restriction. Federal financing is still subject to the President's executive orders, which will be strictly enforced.
When Leavitt made this statement, however, she opened the door for a huge coalition of Democratic state attorneys general who were suing to permanently halt the decision to inform a federal judge that they required a restraining order against the administration.
"In court just now, the states are introducing @PressSec tweet saying the funding freeze is still active as evidence that their lawsuit should continue," reported Kyle Cheney of Politico. The states were granted their motion by U.S. Chief District Judge John McConnell, who ruled that the president's press secretary's remarks rendered the very ambiguous OMB memo's withdrawal meaningless.
"I can't believe I am saying this, but that's my read of a tweet," the judge continued.
