Clean energy group sues Trump admin for freezing billions in funds Congress passed into law

By Ella Nilsen and Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — The environmental group targeted by the Justice Department over a federal grant is suing a bank and the Trump administration for access to billions of dollars of awarded funding, which it says is still locked down.

The nonprofit Climate United sued the administration this weekend to unfreeze a $7 billion federal grant awarded by the Biden administration, using money Congress appropriated, that will fund clean energy and solar projects around the nation.

The nonprofit said it sought to withdraw funding from its Citibank account on February 18, but the bank did not respond. The nonprofit ultimately sent requests on the status of the funds to the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal officials, it said.

The lawsuit dredges up recent allegations that Justice Department leaders are still targeting the environmental group and others receiving similar grant funding, while the Trump-appointed Environmental Protection Agency accuses the group of criminal activity without offering details on those accusations.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has suggested the funding was rushed to the nonprofits at the end of the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act. An official responsible for implementing the funding previously told CNN it was not rushed or set up nefariously, and was implemented in a way the Treasury Department has done for years.

An EPA spokesperson said Monday, “In keeping with a longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on any pending litigation.

The case is one of many against various Trump administration attempts to block promised funding but is the only one so far that alleges the Justice Department is using its power in the criminal court system improperly for political reasons.

“These efforts have apparently worked, as Citibank is now refusing to honor Climate United’s disbursement requests, despite Citibank’s unambiguous contractual obligation to do so,” lawyers for Climate United wrote in Monday court filings. The nonprofit also noted a comment the Trump-appointed EPA head made on TV this month, saying his opinion was that the group’s handling of money could be criminal.

“EPA has never identified any legal basis for freezing these funds … There is no evidence that Climate United has done anything wrong. It has not,” the nonprofit’s lawyers wrote.

Climate United is asking a federal judge in Washington for emergency intervention. Judge Tanya Chutkan is assigned to the case, and as of Monday morning had not responded.

The group says if the freeze on its funding continues, it will “be forced to furlough staff, to renege on its loan obligations, and to encounter grave economic harm,” according to court documents. The freeze is hurting solar projects in Arkansas, the leasing of electric trucks in southern California and plans to develop solar power plants alongside American Indian tribal groups in Oregon and Idaho, among other initiatives.

Climate United is one of several nonprofits that, collectively, are set to receive and disburse $20 billion worth of congressionally approved federal funds that are being held in a bank — funds EPA Administrator Zeldin is attempting to claw back and put into the US Treasury.

Trump’s Justice Department in recent weeks has pushed for a federal criminal grand jury investigation around the $20 billion and sought to freeze the federal money within CitiBank.

The probe prompted the resignation of the top criminal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, CNN previously reported, because she believed there wasn’t evidence to prompt grand jury action or enough of a legal reason to freeze the assets at CitiBank.

“We’re going to court for the communities we serve — not because we want to, but because we have to,” Climate United CEO Beth Bafford said in a statement.

CitiBank said in a statement on Monday it would “of course” comply with any court decision.

“We have received and are currently reviewing the suit,” said Mark Costiglio, a spokesperson for the bank. “As we’ve said previously, Citi has been working with the federal government in its efforts to address government officials’ concerns regarding this federal grant program. Our role as financial agent does not involve any discretion over which organizations receive grant funds.”

The US Attorney’s Office for DC declined to comment.

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