The Trump administration keeps ratcheting up its attacks on congressionally appropriated funding across the country, sparking several lawsuits from 20+ state coalitions.
Hear from those holding the line on All Rise News.
After using money for education, transportation, and health care to advance his immigration agenda, Donald Trump is now trying to strong-arm states that oppose his policies by targeting the most vulnerable people: crime victims.
In a half-hour interview, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin described the lawsuit that he filed along with 19 other states and Washington, D.C., pushing to end what he describes as a uniquely “heinous” policy.
“For 40 years, this has been maybe the least controversial thing the federal government has done,” Platkin noted, referring to the funding guaranteed under Ronald Reagan-signed Victims of Crime Act.
“There's been no political bickering over it. It had broad bipartisan support, and it had never been weaponized in any way until now,” the attorney general added.
According to the lawsuit, New Jersey received roughly $10 million of a roughly $1 billion pool of money providing critical resources and services to victims and survivors of crime. Nationwide, that money has funded emergency shelter, sexual assault forensic exams, medical, funeral, and burial expenses, compensation for lost wages, victim and witness advocacy services, and more.
For the first time, Trump’s DOJ has conditioned receipt of the money on compliance with policies that often conflict with the laws of the states, including in New Jersey.
“In New Jersey, we have an immigrant trust directive, and we put these policies into place, by the way, because they're good for public safety,” Platkin said, referring to a case where Trump’s immigration authorities detained an undocumented woman stabbed in the neck in a domestic abuse incident.
“Wait a second, you're going to let an attempted murderer walk because you've detained the victim of a violent crime?” Platkin asked, adding that it took a press inquiry for the woman’s case to get resolved.
Throughout the interview, Platkin denounced the politicization of Trump’s Justice Department as leading to a breakdown of communication with local law enforcement, threatening public safety. In New Jersey, the Justice Department charged two Democratic politicians — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver — performing oversight over Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center run by the private contractor Geo Group.
Baraka’s trespassing case quickly collapsed, and McIver has challenged her pending prosecution with a motion for selective and vindictive prosecution, which uncovered a new detail about the politicians’ visit to Delaney Hall.
Shortly before Baraka’s arrest, an agent could be heard over bodycam footage stating, “We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States,” as reported by Politico. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is Trump’s former criminal defense attorney.
“The Department of Justice that has been around for 150 years for a reason, and I'm very concerned about the impact on public safety when you divert all these resources away from core law enforcement purposes of tracking and taking down drug cartels or violent crime gangs or terrorist rings and putting them on nonsense, putting them on nonsense to score political points in a charade,” Platkin said.
Watch the full video at the top of the story.
Share this post