Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington state’s attorney general sued President Donald Trump on Thursday over his plan to shift more than $3.6 billion in military construction funding to help build a border wall.
In Washington state, Trump’s plan would divert $89 million from a pier project at a submarine base west of Seattle.
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Trump and other administration officials, saying it was a “misuse of his presidential emergency powers to accomplish an ideological political goal.”
The cuts stemmed from a Feb. 15 declaration by Trump that a national emergency exists at the border that requires the use of the armed forces.
The cut to the project at Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor is one of more than 120 military construction projects in 23 states, three U.S. territories and 20 countries that will lose funding under the move.
Ferguson noted that lawsuits were previously filed by 20 states. He decided to go forward with his legal action after authorities confirmed that the Bangor project would lose money, he said.
Trump committed an unconstitutional abuse of power by shifting money previously approved by Congress, Ferguson said.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet of ballistic missile submarines is located at the Bangor base.
The $89 million was intended to build a pier, maintenance facility and berthing for two vessels that escort and provide security for submarines.
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