“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said in a statement releasing the tracker.

Budget experts say the #Trump admin needs to follow #budget #law & either put cuts to a vote in #Congress or abandon the effort to freeze money without lawmakers’ approval.

…#Trump & #DOGE have aggressively flouted #Congress’s power with potentially [definitely] #illegal freezes on spending, & many of the moves have ended up in #court, where judges have at least temporarily reversed some actions.

Trump has frozen or canceled at least $430 billion in funds since taking office, according to an estimate compiled by the top #Democrats on the #House & #Senate #appropriations committees.

…The idea for #Congress to pass #Musk’s cuts dates to a closed-door lunch between lawmakers & Musk in March. Sen Rand Paul & others suggested to Musk that the #Trump admin should send billions of dollars in #DOGE cuts to Congress in the form of a #RescissionPackage, which would take only a bare majority to pass the #Senate. That would probably protect the cuts from being struck down by the #courts. Musk reacted enthusiastically to the idea, acc/to several senators.

“None of the activities of the #DOGE have heretofore had any impact on the #budget, the #debt or the #deficit. Until #Congress acts, those [dubious] savings don’t really become real,” said Robert Shea, a #Republican who served in senior political roles at the White House budget office.

The #Trump WH has to choose between implementing the funding Congress approved or violating federal budget #law, triggering a #ConstitutionalCrisis, acc/to Shea & several other budget experts.

As the #Trump WH prepares to release its budget proposal Friday, the impasse over #DOGE reflects a looming challenge for the admin’s vision of a sprawling overhaul of #FederalAgencies. With both the #courts & #Congress refusing to provide #legal cover to spending cuts that #Musk forced through, the admin is running out of options for ensuring that its #unilateral reductions take effect—potentially limiting DOGE’s lasting impact despite the #disruption it brought to the govt.

"#DOGE has already begun enacting spending savings that are supposed to go through #Congress unilaterally," Jessica Riedl, a budget expert at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute said. "And the president's budget may essentially provide a preview of what DOGE will attempt to enact unilaterally, even if Congress doesn't act."

#Harvard is among the vast majority of public & private #universities & #colleges that are #TaxExempt.

Under the #law, the #IRS initiates investigations based on established criteria & procedures, not based on presidential directives. The IRS is expected to operate independently & without political pressure.

If the IRS found that Harvard’s tax-exempt status should be revoked, Harvard would be given notice & an opportunity to contest the finding in court.

…#EmilBove’s demands frustrated people in the #CivilRights division, but many of the managers were afraid to push back, having watched a month earlier as Bove pressed prosecutors in a different division, the #PublicIntegrity section, to drop #criminal charges against #NYC Mayor #EricAdams…. That section, which once had about 30 lawyers, now has only a handful.

#EmilBove insisted that the #Instagram account in question had been used to make a threat, while line prosecutors said the statement at issue did not meet the #legal definition of a #threat. In late March, the #SocialMedia company suspended the group’s account for failing to meet its “community standards.”

The #CivilRights Prosecutors refused to compile such a list that could be given to #ICE agents….

#EmilBove then shifted his focus to obtaining a search #warrant for the group’s #Instagram account…. He ordered prosecutors to apply for a search warrant for the nonpublic data associated with the account, these people said.

The premise of the application was also contentious within the department.

#ShariRedstone, the company’s controlling #shareholder, has said she favors settling the case. She is set to receive a major #payday in a pending #sale of Paramount to a Hollywood studio, #Skydance, that requires sign-off from the #Trump admin. Any settlement would ultimately require the board’s approval, & Redstone has told the board that she is *recusing* herself from deliberations related to the lawsuit.

#Legal experts have called the suit baseless & an easy victory for #CBS. But #Paramount is entering the talks prepared to make a deal.

In an April 18 meeting, the Paramount board outlined acceptable financial terms for a potential settlement w/ #Trump, acc/to 3 people…. The exact dollar amounts remain unclear, but the board’s move clears a path for an out-of-court resolution.

#Capitulation #Appeasement #Disgrace
Lawyers for #Trump & #Paramount, the parent company of #CBSNews, are set to begin mediation on Wednesday over a lawsuit brought by Trump that accuses “#60Minutes” of *deceptively* [accurately] editing an interview with his 2024 Democratic opponent, #KamalaHarris.

#law #journalism #ethics #FourthEstate #BillOwens #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #democracy #autocracy #dictatorship #censorship #StateMedia #propaganda
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/business/media/paramount-cbs-60-minutes-trump-lawsuit.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=4F0A1033-7C72-43C9-B834-781E1210163C

Later in the morning, the retail giant claimed that was not the plan at all.

"The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products," #Amazon spox Tim Doyle said in a statement. "This was never approved & is not going to happen."

#AmazonHaul is a part of the company's website that sells products costing $20 or less.

"I just got off the phone with the president about Amazon's announcement — this is a hostile & political act by Amazon," White House propagandist Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

It wasn't the only phone call about the issue on Tues: #Trump called #Amazon founder #JeffBezos after he learned about the news story laying out a plan to show tariff price hikes.