President-elect Donald Trump has taken action to try and bring President Joe Biden’s sale of border wall materials by filing an amicus brief in a Texas court. The brief asks the federal judge on the bench to “immediately stop any ongoing sale of border-barrier materials” until a thorough probe is launched into the current administration’s conduct over the border wall and is completed.
The brief, penned by Trump’s lawyer John Sauer, who has been nominated to be the president-elect’s solicitor general during his second term, cites an exclusive report from The Daily Wire that contains video showing the Biden administration moving large quantities of border wall material off the border so it can be sold to private parties in an auction. What Biden is probably hoping will happen is that companies will buy the materials and offer to sell them back to Trump and extremely high prices. He’s a dog like that.
“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,” the brief goes on to say. “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.”
via The Daily Wire:
The Daily Wire’s December 12 report found that the material was being hauled off by private contractors to an auction site, where bidding for entire segments of unconstructed wall started at just $5. Trump said at a press conference this week that the outgoing administration “is trying to sell it for five cents on the dollar knowing that we’re getting ready to put it up.” Steven Cheung, Trump’s top spokesman, said Trump filed the brief because of the Biden administration’s “egregious history of violating the law.”
“Any attempt by Biden officials to obstruct President Trump’s plan to build the Border Wall is unlawful, unconstitutional, and possibly criminal, as our brief argues,” Cheung explained. “The Biden Administration has an egregious history of violating the law, especially in its catastrophic open-border policy, so the courts should review their actions here with particular skepticism.”
“President Trump will not be deterred from Building the Wall, securing our border, and Making America Great Again,” he continued.
The amicus brief, filed in the Southern District of Texas, is in reference to cases brought by Texas and Missouri against the Biden administration regarding the sale of wall material. It argues that Trump has made clear his “support for building a system of border barriers at the southwestern border” and that “building the border wall is the clear and emphatic policy of the incoming Trump Administration.”
“Accordingly, President Trump is deeply troubled by recent reports that officials in the Biden Administration have been selling off border-wall materials at rock-bottom prices, especially during this lame-duck period,” the brief later states.
“President Trump has a paramount interest in preventing any unlawful sell-off of border wall materials that may be occurring,” it adds. “One of President Trump’s dominant priorities for the next four years—building the border wall—could be unlawfully hampered, delayed, or obstructed by such efforts.”
The brief also makes mention of Trump’s mandate to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse, going on to point toward the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. An investigation headed up by Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt discovered that the president’s administration is only recouping 0.02 percent of the original cost of the material in its sale.
It also makes the case that the current administration’s excuse for trying to justify the sale of the materials, a citation of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed in 2023, is totally wrong.
The bill’s provision calls for “a plan to use, transfer, or donate to States on the southern border,” and was written by Republicans with the intent of stopping the administration from selling off border parts, according to congressional sources.
“That language does not mandate or authorize DoD to sell the excess border wall material at a steep discount to private parties,” the brief says.