Follow-Up: Judge Orders Government to Pull Three Taxpayer-Funded Ads, Including '$5,000 to Americans'
U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in New York ruled on Friday that the federal government must pull three taxpayer-funded Trump administration ads that appear to have been made for political or propaganda purposes, including one touting President Donald Trump's claim that every American will get $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress in the upcoming midterm election, the Associated Press reported.
The three ads ordered down are titled "$5,000 to Americans," "Every Democrat Voted Against No Tax on Tips," and "Cost of Socialism." Rochon said the three must be taken off official government websites, including social media sites such as YouTube and Instagram, and she ordered the cancellation of any plans for airing or distributing the ads through authorized third parties, including Trump's flagship super PAC, MAGA Inc.
Rochon sided with a coalition that includes the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause. The plaintiffs sought the removal of at least 13 ads, but Rochon ordered only those three pulled, at least for now. She ruled during a hearing in which she considered expanding a temporary restraining order she issued two weeks ago, when she banned a series of ads that glorify Trump and echo his political messaging going into the midterms. She said irreparable harm could result to the plaintiffs if she did not ban the ads while the case proceeds, and noted she could reverse herself and restore the ads, or ban additional ones, after hearing more evidence in the coming weeks.
After issuing the order, Rochon noted that she was doing so on a Friday afternoon and that the government would have no excuse to delay taking them down immediately. Rochon was nominated to the court by then-President Joe Biden and once served as a law clerk for Trump's sister, the late Maryanne Trump Barry, a longtime federal appeals court judge. An earlier ruling in the same dispute came in mid-October, when a federal judge first blocked taxpayer-funded pro-Trump television ads after some $19 million had been spent.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 New York Manhattan 的 Daniel Patrick Moynihan 美国联邦法院大楼，联邦纽约南区地区法院所在地。Ken Lund，CC BY-SA 2.0，经维基共享资源。 / The Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, New York, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. By Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
