Home Update: Jason Miyares spokesman offers ‘no comment’ on possible Trump freeze review
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Update: Jason Miyares spokesman offers ‘no comment’ on possible Trump freeze review

Chris Graham
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Update: Wednesday, 12:44 p.m. Shaun Kenney, the director of communications for Attorney General Jason Miyares, wrote me within a few minutes of the story hitting the interwebs – credit to Kenney, for being on top of things – to suggest a retraction to our article on the Office of the AG’s response to the Donald Trump funding freeze executive order.

It seems what Kenney really wanted is a clarification, not a retraction, based on what he presented, in terms of background on his back-and-forth with Brad Kutner, the Richmond bureau chief for WVTF Radio IQ.

Kenney pointed out that his answer “just not what we do” wasn’t a response to a question from Kutner to a question of “if (the AG’s) office would take any steps to fight the funding freeze,” but rather a more specific question from Kutner “about the future of offshore wind in Virginia.”

Kenney wrote back to Kutner: “This seems more like a question for Dominion, is it not? Not sure if/why OAG would review this (just not what we do).”

Then, in response to Kutner’s follow-up – “Please clarify the AG office’s comment on this – if it is ‘that’s not something we do,’ let me know, and that’s what I’ll run” – Kenney offered this as his response: “I would refer such questions to Dominion Energy. Sorry I can’t help further.”

OK, so, that’s cleared up now, hopefully.

As we communicated about that issue, I asked Kenney, “Is the AG’s office going to review the Trump order?”

And then, in a follow-up, I noted that “(w)hat I really care about is whether or not the AG office is going to review the Trump order, and consider joining litigation challenging the funding freeze.”

The answer from Kenney: “We have no comment at this time.  Sorry we don’t have more for you on that front.”

More clarity there, I hope.

And for me, the “no comment” leaves unchallenged the main thrust of what I wrote below, which is that the AG was more than willing to sue the Biden administration to score political points, but isn’t even able to comment on whether or not he would take action when it comes to challenging Trump on the legality of an executive order.

But that said, the AG’s office didn’t tell Brad Kutner that “that’s just not what we do” in response to a direct question on whether or not it would review the order.

And now you have more insight into how the news is made than you ever dreamed possible.


donald trump jason miyares
Donald Trump: © Evan El-Amin – shutterstock.com. Jason Miyares: © The Old Major – Shutterstock.

First report: Wednesday, 11:35 a.m. Credit to Brad Kutner, the Richmond bureau chief for WVTF Radio IQ, for getting the office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on the record on how it isn’t interested in challenging Donald Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional federal funding freeze.

“That’s just not what we do,” was the response from a spokesman, from a question that Kutner says he posed asking if the AG’s office had begun a review of the orders.

The reporter then followed up, noting that “state AGs file litigation against the federal government all the time – you guys did it under Biden.”

“Now you’ve got $440 million in federal grants on the line – and billions in investment from Martinsville to the Eastern Shore,” Kutner noted.

“Please clarify the AG office’s comment on this – if it is ‘that’s not something we do,’ let me know, and that’s what I’ll run.”

That’s what he ended up running.

Miyares can’t get on the record fast enough when it comes to Joe Biden granting clemency to two innocent Black men serving a life sentence for a murder that a jury said they didn’t commit, a judge allowing Sweet Briar College to bar trans women, the Supreme Court allowing Gov. Glenn Youngkin to purge 1,600 voters from the state’s voter rolls.

There’s a long list of things this guy can’t wait to stick his nose into.


ICYMI

jason miyares
Jason Miyares: © Michael Robb Photography – Shutterstock

But he won’t stand up to Donald Trump doing blatantly illegal things with federal taxpayer money.

This is how wannabe dictators like Trump are able to do what they do.

Trump won the 2024 election by one of the narrowest margins in history, has tiny majorities in Congress, but he has Republicans like Jason Miyares, who are more interested in keeping their jobs than actually doing their jobs, constantly under threat of being primaried if they do anything out of line.

Ask Bob Good how that works out for you in the end.

It literally would take one Jason Miyares to stand up to the guy to effect change, but the Jason Miyares we have here lacks a spine – same as Glenn Youngkin lacks a spine, same as everybody on that side of the aisle aside from Mike Pence lacks a spine.

Virginia, you know what you need to do.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].