Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department on Feb. 12 in Washington. Ben Curtis/Associated Press
The U.S. Attorney General announced on national TV Tuesday morning that she is withholding money to Maine prisons after learning about a female transgender prisoner living in a unit with other women.
Pam Bondi told Fox and Friends that the Department of Justice “pulled all nonessential funding … because they were allowing a man in a woman’s prison.” She did not specify how much funding was put on hold.
Bondi did not name the prisoner, but described a case similar to that of a transgender woman who was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2018 for killing her parents in Withrop. She was 17 at the time of the killings, but her case was moved to adult court.
Neither the Department of Justice nor the Maine Department of Corrections immediately responded to requests for more information on Bondi’s announcement.
This is the most recent instance of the Trump administration threatening to freeze funds specifically to Maine, targeting the state’s human rights laws for transgender Mainers.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey filed a lawsuit on Monday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for threatening to withhold money used for school lunches, after the White House determined Maine’s policies for transgender athletes violates Title IX. (Frey has disputed the state is doing anything illegal.)
This story will be updated.
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