A federal judge in Manhattan Wednesday denied a motion from New York City seeking a temporary restraining order that would have required the Trump administration to return $80.5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency migrant aid it clawed back in February.
U.S. Judge Jennifer Rearden, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, issued the ruling Wednesday afternoon in a case filed by city officials after the funds that were paid on Feb. 4 by FEMA were taken from a city bank account, reports Josh Russell of Courthouse News.
Rearden said the city did not show that irreparable harm happened when the government pulled back the grant money and that it could still recover the funding if it wins in its lawsuit filed after the money went missing from its bank accounts, according to Reuters.
FEMA pulled back the money on Feb. 12 after another federal judge said he would not stop the Trump administration from rescinding the funds, which included a $59 million grant that the administration had challenged earlier in the week and another award for $21.5 million.
City Comptroller Brad Lander said the money was discovered to be missing overnight and that nobody in his office knew the federal government had access to the city's accounts. The city has sued the Trump administration for the return of the funds.
The grants had been awarded during Biden's administration but were not disbursed until after President Donald Trump took office.
Trump's DOGE adviser Elon Musk flagged the $59 million grant, claiming on X that his department discovered the money was being used to house migrants in "luxury hotels," but he gave no evidence supporting that claim.
FEMA's acting administrator said in court documents that the money was being taken because of concerns about "illegal activities" being carried out at a hotel.
Lander questioned, though, if the move to claw back the money was legal, saying he'd never seen such a case where someone could take money "because of shifting political winds."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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