In an Hour, USDC Judge Ali In DC Will Likely Adopt The Plaintiffs' Position, Wholesale, In This Overnight Status Report -- USAID To Resume Flowing Immediately.

The hearing will feature fireworks, to be certain.

Marco Rubio -- whatever else he might be -- lacks "the gravitas" to defy federal court injunctions. He's a vain lil' man. All the while, children are dying of Ebola in Africa -- because he is defying the law of the land. That is a simple fact now. Here's the joint status report for the morning's hearing, and a bit of the juicy part:

. . .Far from taking meaningful steps toward compliance, Defendants have instead continued to erect barriers to compliance with their payment obligations. As Plaintiffs have previously reported, Defendants have limited access to payment systems to a fraction of the staff who had access before January 20 and placed numerous staff who process these payments on paid administrative leave. See GHC ECF 42, at 10 (citing sources). Mr. Marocco’s own declarations also make clear that Defendants have added new layers of bureaucratic signoff to the payment review process, which require a small number of political appointees to confirm, not just that payments are valid, but that they comport with the President’s policy priorities. GHC ECF 25-1 (“Feb. 18 Marocco Decl.”) ¶¶ 6, 8 (describing “new Payment Integrity Review Process,” which entails payment-by-payment processing); GHC ECF 43 (“Feb. 25 Marocco Decl.”), ¶¶ 14-17. . . .

Mr. Marocco’s most recent declaration is clear evidence that these new policies and processes are impeding the disbursement of funds: Mr. Marocco states that the $250 million in payments that (as he had previously represented to this Court) had been authorized for release during the week of February 17 were subsequently withheld for “specific, independent, high-level policy decisions and events that postdated [his] declaration.” GHC ECF 48-2 (“March 3 Marocco Decl.”). . . .

Marocco and Rubio here openly admit that they defied a federal court order to disburse funds -- an order now endorsed by a 5-4 majority of the US Supreme Court. The hubris of these blokes. . . knows no bounds. They've lost in every court up and down the line. Pack it in fellas' -- try your hand at passing NEW legislation in the Congress. That's where the effort is, or would be. . . lawful.

नमस्ते