President-elect Donald Trump filed an amicus brief late Thursday backing a legal effort by Texas and Missouri to “immediately” halt the Biden administration’s sale of border wall materials, calling the action “possibly criminal.” Earlier this week, Texas and Missouri filed a motion in the Southern District of Texas requesting a status conference to assess whether the government is violating a permanent injunction issued earlier this year. The injunction prohibits the Biden administration from using funds allocated for wall construction for any other purpose.
“The Court should issue an order directing the Defendants to immediately stop any ongoing sale of border-barrier materials to private parties pending the Court’s review of Defendant’s conduct, and the Court should swiftly conduct a searching examination of the Government’s conduct, by formal discovery if necessary, to examine the Government’s compliance with the law, the Constitution, and the Court’s injunction,” Trump’s amicus brief states, according to Fox News.
The Biden administration has been auctioning off border wall materials since at least 2023, listing parts for sale on auction platforms after halting most border wall construction in January 2021, shortly after being inaugurated. The auctions have reportedly continued regularly, with border officials telling Fox News that they now occur weekly and have been for some time. The practice drew renewed attention last week when The Daily Wire published a video showing wall materials being transported, citing Border Patrol agents who claimed the goal was to clear them out before Christmas.
Trump’s amicus brief states that if officials in the Biden administration are “deliberately selling off border-wall materials at a major financial loss to the Government to obstruct the pro-wall policy of Congress and President Trump, such conduct likely constitutes a criminal act, such as a conspiracy to defraud the United States.” The filing adds: “At the very least, the reported conduct raises troubling concerns of potentially criminal behavior.”
A Defense official told Fox News last week that the Pentagon has been disposing of surplus border wall materials in compliance with the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The act required the Defense Secretary to submit a plan to use, transfer, or donate all remaining wall materials purchased with Pentagon funds. That plan was submitted in March.
The official stated that border states, including Texas, were given the first opportunity to purchase the materials before they were put up for auction. The official also clarified that the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government, adding that the Defense Department has no legal authority to reclaim the materials or halt their further resale, Fox continued.
“Through our reutilization, transfer and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California,” the official said. “The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024. The material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DOD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns.”
Those statements have done little to quell Republican outrage, as many view the auctions as an effort to prevent the Trump administration from completing the border wall. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation this week aimed at halting the auctions. Meanwhile, Trump announced on Monday that he has been working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others to secure the materials, Fox added.
“What they’re doing is really an act, it’s almost a criminal act,” he said. “They know we’re going to use it, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it. And it’ll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars because you’re talking about a lot of, a lot of wall.”