DOJ admits Trump doesn't actually have a 'contract' to build his wall
Trump keeps ‘punching himself in the face’ with lies about the border wall, the Massachusetts executive director of the ACLU said.
When put on the spot by a federal judge, Trump’s own Justice Department lawyers refused to lie for him, exposing yet another of Trump’s many lies about his border wall obsession.
On Dec. 24, 2018, Trump announced that he was sitting in the Oval Office, and he “just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas.”
The Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU followed up on the announcement by requesting documentation from the Department of Homeland Security about the request for proposals, environmental impact studies, and of course, the contract itself.
But it turns out that there is no such contract. A search by Trump’s administration turned up absolutely no evidence of any contract — and they were forced to admit so in federal court.
In the course of litigation over the request, lawyers from the Justice Department, representing the Trump administration, were questioned by Judge William Young of the Massachusetts Federal District Court.
“So far as you know, is there any such contract?” Young asked the lawyers.
“No, your Honor, so far as I know there is no contract of 115 miles as referenced,” Peter Bryce, representing the Trump administration, answered.
After the hearing, Carol Rose, executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU chapter, spoke about the case on Boston Public Radio.
“The judge was angry and said, ‘We all know that just because our president has said that there’s a contract that doesn’t make it so,'” Rose said. “[He] effectively suggested that we all can understand that our president doesn’t tell the truth. So that’s remarkable.”
“There’s been no suggestion that there is a contract. Everything, every scintilla of credible evidence here is that there is no such contract,” Young said from the bench. He also said Trump’s statement is “just inaccurate, there isn’t a contract.”
Rose is hoping her litigation, along with activities by others, halts progress on the border wall. And Trump’s lying isn’t helping his cause.
“I think the president is wounding himself over and over again, punching himself in the face,” Rose added.
We couldn’t have said it better.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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