Trump accused of 'deliberately' defying federal judge's order over $16 billion dispute

Earlier in February, a federal judge ended President Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of New York and New Jersey residents by demanding the Trump administration “unfreeze funding” for the sprawling $16 billion Gateway project.

The White House had floated unlocking the Gateway money in exchange for Democrats’ agreeing to rename Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after Trump. But U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas halted that effort after New York and New Jersey attorneys general filed suit, arguing that the White House’s order to withhold the funds was illegal and caused economic harm.

One week later, however, the AGs are complaining the Trump administration is intentionally dragging its feet.

“It is now well into business hours today, February 13, and there is no sign of a wire transfer of any money, much less the over $200 million the Government asserted was ready to be disbursed at 1 p.m. on Monday in its filings earlier this week. Communications with Defendants’ counsel have not produced any clear assurances of timing,” argued a letter signed by New York State AG Letitia James, who has already racked up a successful civil fraud case against Trump.

James and the New Jersey AG argue that funds should have been disbursed immediately, but instead the Trump administration is claiming that additional processes are needed, and that even after Defendants complete those processes, the Department of Treasury will require further hurdles to process the disbursements.

“Even worse, Defendants appear to have deliberately delayed these processes,” James argued, saying the Trump administration cancelled the general district court’s reimbursement requests without notifying the court. They then further stalled the process by demanding the court initiate new reimbursement requests.

“Plaintiffs understand that disbursements are generally not instantaneous,” said James, but she argued that hurdles must have already been surmounted if the court expected the money to be disbursed without a stay by 1 p.m. on Monday.

NY Daily News court reporter Molly Crane-Newman posted on X that federal lawyers told Vargas, say the the department of transportation has sent payments to the Treasury and that states won’t get paid until Tuesday.