Judge blocks parts of Trump executive order that targeted Perkins Coie law firm
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Wednesday entered an emergency order barring the Trump administration from implementing major parts of its executive order that sought to target the law firm Perkins Coie over its representation of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
District Judge Beryl Howell, ruling from the bench, found that attorneys for Perkins Coie had met the bar for her to enter a temporary restraining order — determining they would suffer immediate and irreparable harm if provisions of the order targeting the law firm’s work with government contractors as well as restrictions on their attorney’s access to government buildings were implemented.
In an extraordinary hearing in which the Justice Department put forward Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, to present its arguments, Howell repeatedly questioned the logic and legality surrounding the order — which she said had extraordinary breadth and whose language was unlike any other order she’d ever read.
“Regardless of whether the President dislikes the firm’s clients … issuing an executive order targeting the firm based on the President’s dislike of the political positions of the firm’s clients, or the firm’s litigation positions is retaliatory and runs head on into the wall of First Amendment protection,” Howell said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers from both political parties invoked China as a potential winner in international development as the U.S. reviews its foreign assistance programs and non-governmental organizations funded largely by American grants await answers on the fate of funds critical to their missions abroad.
An official for the demining authority in Cambodia on Thursday said he received a notification to “demobilize staff members and operational teams under the support of the U.S.” starting on March 1, calling the loss of the partnership a “critical situation.”
Grantees in Cambodia were ordered to stop work via an email on Jan. 26 from the State Department office which has since 1993 dispersed grants globally to remove landmines and unexploded ordnance.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News that “each program is undergoing a review with the goal of restructuring assistance to serve U.S. interests,” including the demining grants from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.
In its 2024 annual report, the office said the U.S. was the world’s “top supporter” of weapons destruction projects, including landmine clearance.
‘Clearing unexploded ordnance here for 100 years’
U.S. grants fund 30% of demining work in Cambodia, a vital nationwide effort in the southeast Asian country to remove landmines from its brutal civil war and unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. in the Vietnam War, said Bill Morse, chairman of Cambodian Self-Help Demining.
“We’ll be clearing unexploded ordnance here for 100 years,” he said to ABC News via video call from Cambodia.
In a statement, Heng Ratana, the director of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), which oversees demining operations in the country, pointed to other countries in Asia — such as China and Japan — and western nations like Germany and Canada who continue to fund the Cambodian authority on demining.
CMAC estimates the country is laden with as many as 4 to 6 million landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed — and 10,000 more have had amputations because of their injuries — in explosions, according to HALO Trust, a leading NGO.
Non-governmental organizations that work in coordination with CMAC are looking for new funding sources amid uncertainty during the freeze, said Morse, whose NGO has received grants from the State Department since 2009.
“We’ll take money from anyone if they help us clear landmines. I’m not going to be picky about it,” Morse said.
Demining is viewed as a key link between the U.S. and Cambodia, a developing nation that has increasingly relied on China for infrastructure investments and is an ally of Beijing.
Flying the American flag in the field
Demining “is a highly visible demonstration of American support for a country,” Morse said. “We fly the American flag in the field. Our uniforms carry the American flag on it. The helmets that we wear have the American flag on it.”
“Most people in the country, in the countryside, what they know of the United States is what we’re doing in the field … They’ve never seen an ambassador in their life. I may be the only American they ever meet.”
China, which has been a partner on demining efforts in Cambodia, dispersed $4.4 million to the demining authority last week, CMAC announced.
Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sparred over U.S. foreign assistance in a Thursday hearing focused on USAID programs, which Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said are “indefensible” and “literally betray America.”
“Your money would’ve been better off if it had simply been thrown into a fireplace,” Mast said to open the hearing.
Yet members from both parties pointed to the rising influence of China, alarmed that China could open a spigot of cash for international aid in areas where U.S. programs cease. “It counters China,” former Republican Rep. Ted Yoho testified, describing development work. “If we’re not there, China will be there.”
Strategic competition with China
The top Republican and Democrat on the panel’s East Asia subcommittee framed the assistance issue in terms of strategic competition with China.
“I worry about what’s happening in the Pacific Islands … we’re ceding our influence there,” said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif. “We’re already seeing China step in and take things over.”
Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., like Bera invoked demining work, citing “reports of CCP officials signaling their willingness to replace USAID in Nepal and demining activities in Cambodia.”
“Even critics of USAID acknowledge the critical soft power value of targeted and efficient programming,” she said.
A House Democratic staffer told ABC News that recipient countries, including allies, of U.S. assistance will be left with little choice but to turn to China.
The U.S. has engaged in Ghana “in part” to limit China’s gains, the staffer said, calling it “a really good U.S. partner” that now has a $156 million gap for which to compensate.
“They don’t want to work with China more. But when you have a country that has such a liquidity crisis — they have a new president, and now they have this huge funding gap — what do you expect them to do?” the staffer asked.
All three expert witnesses at Thursday’s committee hearing agreed that China represents a counterweight to the U.S. in international development.
“The U.S. has owned the space,” the Democratic staffer said, noting Russia’s recent work on mpox and ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, low-visibility assistance that could become more apparent if the U.S. pulls back permanently.
Yoho said good programs run by USAID and the State Department should be “back online as soon as possible” and “mission-driven” projects should be prioritized.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, 17 former ambassadors to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos called for Rubio “to end the 90 day stop work order for U.S. foreign assistance programming that suspends U.S.-funded mine clearance programs” via “a waiver or quick and affirmative review.”
The diplomats said in their letter that U.S.-funded demining work advances national security by ensuring bad actors do not weaponize explosive materials and by fostering important connections in defense and economics.
“As former Ambassadors, we can attest that these programs helped us advance US interests by generating goodwill and providing access to senior government officials,” they wrote.
In its statement to ABC News, the State Department said it was standing up a coordination team to ensure the review of foreign assistance was “accountable” and “transparen[t].”
“Programs that serve our nation’s interests will continue,” the spokesperson said. “However, programs that aren’t aligned with our national interest will not.”
The stakes are life-and-death, Morse said.
“What’s going to happen is, [there’s a] very good chance people are going to die. Next month, they’re going to walk into an area that should have been cleared this month.”
“They’re going to step on a landmine, blow their leg off and bleed out,” he said.
About 81% of cleared land is used for farming, 15% for schools and hospitals and housing, and 4% for energy infrastructure, according to Morse, creating a key second-order effect of development.
“Clearing landmines doesn’t simply save lives,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — He was the first Democrat to call for impeachment during President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House and now Rep. Al Green is believed to be he first lawmaker in modern history to be thrown out of a Joint Session of Congress or a State of the Union address, according to a presidential historian.
The 78-year-old Texas congressman was escorted out of the House Chamber at the Capitol Building Tuesday night by the House sergeant at arms after he stood and shook his cane at Trump, and refused to obey House Speaker Mike Johnson’s order to sit down and refrain from interrupting the president’s speech by shouting criticisms.
“I can’t think of another lawmaker being taken out. In modern history, I can say with some level of confidence that the answer is no,” said presidential historian Mark Updegrove, CEO of the President Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation.
In advance of Trump’s speech, members of the House Freedom Caucus called on the sergeant at arms to take action against any member of Congress who violated House rules during the address.
“The President’s address to tonight’s joint session of Congress is a constitutional obligation — not a sideshow for Democrats to use noisemakers, make threats, throw things or otherwise disrupt,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement posted on social media. “Our colleagues are on notice that the heckler’s veto will not be tolerated. You will be censured. We expect the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police to take appropriate action against any Members of Congress or other persons violating House rules.”
On Wednesday morning, the group of hardliners said they would censure Green, but moderate GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington beat them to it. Newhouse formally introduced a measure on the House floor to censure Green, which is expected to be voted on Thursday.
Members of the Freedom Caucus include Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado.
During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speeches between 2022 and 2024, Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Georgia, heckled the former president. During Biden’s 2023 State of the Union speech, Greene stood and yelled “liar” multiple times at the former president, but was not escorted out of the House Chamber.
Updegrove, an ABC News contributor, noted that Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, yelled “You Lie” during former President Barack Obama’s 2009 address to a joint session of Congress on health care. At the time, the House of Representatives, with the Democrats holding the majority, voted to reprimand Wilson, who later issued an apology to Obama.
“The Joe Wilson episode was kind of the introduction of greater hostility in Congress, at least in modern times,” Updegrove said.
After lashing out at Trump, yelling, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green was removed from the chamber Tuesday night. He later told ABC News he’d welcome any consequences from his disruption, saying he was “following the wishes of conscience.”
“There are times when it is better to stand alone than not stand at all,” Green said.
Green doubled down on his protest of Trump’s speech on Wednesday, saying if given the chance, “I would do it again.”
“I am not angry with the speaker. I am not angry with the officers. I am not upset with the members who are going to bring the motions or resolutions to sanction. I will suffer the consequences,” Green told ABC News.
Green added, “What I did was from my heart. People are suffering. And I was talking about Medicaid. I didn’t just say you didn’t have a mandate. I said you don’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid.”
Green said he has not spoken to Democratic leadership about his Tuesday night outburst.
It’s not the first time that Green, who has represented Texas’ 9th congressional district since 2005, has been a thorn in Trump’s side.
In May 2017, Green presented the first articles of impeachment against Trump, citing the firing of FBI Director James Comey. In July 2019, he called for Trump’s impeachment again, citing the president’s attack on four Democratic congresswomen of color. The house voted to table Green’s resolution, effectively killing it.
And just last month, Green announced on the floor of Congress that he intends to again file articles of impeachment against Trump, citing the president’s suggestion that the United States take over the Gaza Strip.
“The movement to impeach the president has begun,” Green said on the House floor. “I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done.”
In February 2024, Green, temporarily left his hospital bed in a wheelchair after undergoing intestinal surgery to vote against the Republican-led impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, then Biden’s secretary of Homeland Security, over his handling of a crisis at the southern border. The house ended up voting 214–216 not to impeach Mayorkas.
“I wanted to do all that I can because I know Secretary Mayorkas. He’s a good, decent man and I didn’t want to see his reputation tarnished,” Green said at the time.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Green moved to Houston, Texas, in the 1970s to attend the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, where he earned a law degree, according to a biography published on his website. He later founded and co-managed the law firm Green, Wilson, Dewberry, and Fitch.
Green also served as the Justice of the Peace for Harris County, Texas, for 26 years, retiring in 2004 to run for Congress. He also served for 10 years as president of the Houston branch of the NAACP.
During his tenure in Congress, Green has focused on fair housing and fair hiring practices for the poor and minorities. While in Congress, he has served on the House Financial Services Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security, and chaired the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.
On his website, Green credits his family for teaching him “righteous resistance to overcome persistent injustice.”
A man shouts at Rep. Chuck Edwards during a congressional town hall meeting on March 13, 2025 in Asheville, North Carolina/Sean Rayford/Getty Images
(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., was confronted by angry constituents during a town hall meeting on Thursday night about President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s sweeping cuts across the government.
“How do you justify cuts to staff of the VA helping veterans, especially those with long term care needs,” asked one constituent who was met with a standing ovation from the raucous crowd in Asheville, North Carolina.
“So first of all, there have been no cuts to the staff at VA as of this point. Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought a lot of really smart people,” Edwards responded as he was met with a round of boos. Earlier this month, an internal VA memo indicated that the agency was preparing to lay off 80,000 from its workforce.
The interaction turned so contentious and hostile that Edwards had to be escorted out of the building.
“You don’t get to do this to us,” yelled another constituent.
Republican leadership has told their members to avoid in-person town halls like these after several members were grilled in their home districts.
Edwards, however, went against their advice on Thursday.
“”You see a lot of advice in Washington, D.C. from different folks saying, you know, ‘Republicans shouldn’t be out there doing town halls,’ and I’m thinking ‘why not?’ I love the people,” said Edwards.
The Trump administration is pushing forward with sweeping cuts with thousands of workers already having been laid off across the federal workforce – including Veteran Affairs, the IRS and the Department of Education.
Elon Musk split with the White House this week, suggesting that entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security could be on the chopping block next.
“The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is all of the, which is most of the federal spending is entitlements, so that’s like the big one to eliminate,” Musk said earlier this week.
Those words have left some voters very concerned, with Edwards taking the brunt end of the attacks Thursday night.
“What are you doing to ensure the protection of our Social Security benefits,” asked on constituent to a round of applause.
Replied Edwards: “I’m not going to vote to dissolve your Social Security. I’m not looking to disrupt Social Security at all.”
