The Daily Wire reported that President-elect Donald filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court – Southern District of Texas to stop President Joe Biden’s administration from selling border wall material.
“The outgoing Biden Administration’s reported ‘fire sales’ of border-wall materials to private parties raise grave concerns about the legality of Defendants’ conduct and their compliance with this Court’s permanent injunction in this case,” according to the filing. “The Court should order an immediate stop of all such sales and perform a searching examination of the Government’s conduct—by ordering formal discovery if necessary—to ensure compliance with the Constitution, the law, and the Court’s orders.”
Trump alleges the sale could “constitute criminal fraud.”
“Further, if officials in the current Administration are acting ultra vires and deliberately selling off border-wall materials at a major financial loss to the Government to obstruct the prowall policy of Congress and President Trump, such conduct likely constitutes a criminal act, such as a conspiracy to defraud the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371,” writes John Sauer, the lawyer who authored the brief for Trump. “At the very least, the reported conduct raises troubling concerns of potentially criminal behavior.”
Ultra vires means “beyond the powers.” In other words, Trump has accused the Biden administration of overreaching and exceeding its authority.
18 U.S.C. § 371 is “Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States.” The section says:
If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.
“It raises the concern that government officials may be, in fact, selling off border-wall materials at rock-bottom prices—and thus imposing significant, artificial financial losses on the Government—for the purpose of obstructing both Congress’s and the incoming President’s proborder-barrier policy,” Sauer explains. “If so, such conduct would appear to both ‘cheat the government out of property or money’ and ‘interfere with or obstruct … lawful government functions by deceit, craft or trickery,’ id.—a double violation of the statute committed at a single stroke.”
On December 12, The Daily Wire revealed the Biden administration selling border wall material dirt cheap on an auction site. Bundles of material started at $5.
“On December 17, 2024, President Trump stated that he has received reports that the Biden Administration is selling border-wall materials at ‘five cents on the dollar,’ and that this is ‘almost a criminal act.’ Pinedo, supra,” writes Sauer. “He highlighted reporting that purchasers of the materials, who acquired them at a steep discount, are now offering to sell the materials back to the Trump Administration for ‘hundreds of times more’ than they spent on them.”
Trump also wants Biden to stop selling the material because he made border security a priority during his campaign.
The president-elect wants to continue building the border wall. Biden knows this, too.
“During the recent campaign and Presidential transition, President Trump has reaffirmed his support for building a system of border barriers at the southwestern border as a crucial tool for checking the influx of illegal immigration,” stresses Sauer. “Building the border wall is the clear and emphatic policy of the incoming Trump Administration.”
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the state would buy pieces of the border wall and return it to Trump:
.@GovAbbott and I spoke last night about purchasing “wall” material President Biden is auctioning off. The Governor had already instructed the @TFCtx [Texas Facilities Commission], which oversees Texas’ border wall construction, to look at what Biden was selling.The Texas Facilities Commission told us today that the material for sale was mostly junk, with most panels covered in concrete and rust. There were a few panels that might be usable but not worth the cost of shipping to Texas from Arizona.In short, this was a Biden ruse to gain favor with the radical left open border crowd, showing Biden was fighting President Trump to the bitter end.Rest assured, if they sell any panels that make economic sense, we will buy them and give them to President Trump when he takes office.Governor Abbott, the state legislature, and I all stand ready to help President Trump quickly secure our southern border.
Trump
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