[HN Gopher] FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds...
___________________________________________________________________
FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back
climate money
Author : cjbenedikt
Score : 96 points
Date : 2025-03-14 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
| sharemywin wrote:
| "Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or
| evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery -- that any of that was
| improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that Mr.
| Zeldin doesn't like it?" Judge Tanya Chutkan said.
|
| Judge Chutkan also ordered the Justice Department to provide the
| court with details about the alleged fraud, "because I don't have
| the credible evidence that's required."
|
| This whole calling things fraud without actually have any
| evidence is really starting to get old.
| wenwolf wrote:
| The minimum to cause change is judges expending more effort on
| imprisoning law enforcement agents for perjury.
| jmward01 wrote:
| A weaponized justice department requires the judiciary to
| respond in kind.
| wenwolf wrote:
| Personally, I've considered the problem to be a long term
| one and fixing it as a possible silver lining. I have to
| admit that I'm a bit of a pessimist about the integrity of
| the American people. I was wrong about what would happen
| with the first Black President, I was sure the racism was
| going to have a silver lining of cutting down the POTUS and
| not allowing a show like this. But the POTUS office is
| still the reason the US will kill itself at a minimum.
| (Nothing good can go unpunished?)
| gamblor956 wrote:
| The judge can request that the lawyers involved lose their
| admission to practice in federal court for serious ethical
| violations like the ones here.
|
| However, this very rarely happens except in the most
| egregious cases where the lawyer is usually also disbarred
| for their conduct (i.e., Guiliani) so it's not a meaningful
| disciplinary measure.
| jonstewart wrote:
| Funnily enough, a Trump crony is running to head the DC
| bar...
|
| https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-
| administration/trump-...
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| Is it just custom not to exercise it?
|
| Why do these judges allow people to show up to court and
| make exceptionally stupid arguments?
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > The minimum to cause change is judges expending more effort
| on imprisoning law enforcement agents for perjury.
|
| Is that a thing judges can do? They can imprison you for
| contempt of court; wouldn't perjury need a prosecutor?
| Huntsecker wrote:
| daily stories coming from the US are pretty crazy, FBI being used
| as a tool to try and revert something from under the previous
| administration. Feels like whatever balances and checks that
| should be in place to stop an autocracy are missing
| Terr_ wrote:
| > to try and revert something from under the previous
| administration
|
| More-importantly, it's nowhere close to "normal" try-to-
| reverts, where one President tries to replace an equally "soft"
| policy put in place by another President.
|
| Here the newly-installed crooks are trying to deny a hard
| "money shall be spent on X" law passed _by Congress_ , which is
| an unconstitutional attempt to seize the "power of the purse".
|
| Same legal-vibes as if Trump declared people on his Friends
| List were exempt from taxes.
| pjc50 wrote:
| > as if Trump declared people on his Friends List were exempt
| from taxes
|
| I'll pencil that in for April. After all, the president can
| direct who is and is not prosecuted..
| tempodox wrote:
| I was about to say, "don't give him any ideas", but it
| probably wouldn't have mattered anyway.
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| > ... as if ...
|
| This hasn't happened already?
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| In theory, congress can remove a president. Start placing your
| bets! Does he get removed before he dissolves congress? :)
|
| I'm only partial joking. The check and balances in the country
| won't work if half the population wants to replace democracy
| with theocracy.
| accrual wrote:
| I hope it leads to stronger checks and balances.
| not2b wrote:
| A president can revert an executive order from the previous
| administration. But the Inflation Reduction Act is a law, not
| an executive order. If Trump doesn't like it, he can get
| Congress to repeal it. But he isn't the king. The constitution
| requires that the president "take care that the laws be
| faithfully executed". It isn't fraud when funds that were
| allocated by the act were distributed according to the act. If
| someone cheated then by all means they can bring charges if
| they have any evidence, which they apparently do not.
| 9283409232 wrote:
| Some information from the linked document about the non-profits
| that are being targeted.
|
| > 2. Conflicts of Interest and Political Favoritism
|
| > A $2 billion grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a
| new nonprofit with ties to Stacey Abrams, despite reporting only
| $100 in total revenue in 2023
|
| > Young, Gifted & Green was awarded $20 million, even though its
| CEO applied for funding while serving on the White House
| Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
|
| The balls for this administration to attempt to call out other
| people on conflicts of interest and political favoritism is
| crazy.
| crypto_is_king wrote:
| So you think these scams should get the money anyways just
| because orange man bad?
| epgui wrote:
| What do you think the word "scam" means?
| londons_explore wrote:
| Both sides of the political divide attempt to funnel
| taxpayers money into their own interests, which are often
| thinly veiled ways to get taxpayer money into their own
| pockets. This is nothing new.
|
| Whenever there is a change of admin, the new admin attempts
| to claw back or redirect money the old admin directed to
| their own pockets. This is also nothing new.
|
| What's new this year is people are talking about it.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| If both sides do it, then they should be able to publish
| better evidence than Stacey Abrams' "ties" to Power Forward
| Communities.
|
| The fact that all the DOGE and DOGE-adjacent claims of
| fraud have been so shamefully weak has actually _reduced_
| my confidence that the alleged behavior is actually
| widespread _at all._
| tokioyoyo wrote:
| My take is, either everyone should be allowed to scam, or
| nobody. It sounds very stupid, but I don't like it when
| people in power give preference to their own scams.
|
| Obviously I want no scams, but the US has chosen
| administration that is ok with insider scams. So as an
| outsider, I'd rather see equality instead.
| kelnos wrote:
| I don't think GP said that. Please don't put words in
| people's mouths.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| "Ties to Stacey Abrams", by the way, is that she is an advisor
| to one of the five organizations that founded Power Forward
| Communities...
|
| I.e. that a community organizer was involved in a community
| organization...
| narutosasuke wrote:
| Power Forward Communities: A coalition of five nonprofit
| organizations -- Enterprise Community Partners, Habitat for
| Humanity International, Local Initiatives Support Corporation
| (LISC), Rewiring America and United Way Worldwide.
|
| Abrams' connection to Power Forward Communities, is through
| Rewiring America, one of the five organizations that leads the
| program.
|
| That seems pretty weak. No idea what the other group is but I
| mean if the above is what's being lead with, I don't find
| myself concerned. Looks more like working your way backwards
| from "I don't want this money spent so I will find whatever
| connection I can to corruption"
| viraptor wrote:
| Legal eagle did a good video with lots of context about this
| mess: https://youtu.be/5KApz1PdBgA
| kelnos wrote:
| TFA links to what I think is a much more informative article:
| https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/12/judge-epa-climate-g...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-03-14 23:00 UTC)