Federal judge again blocks Trump from deploying National Guard to Portland

A federal judge again blocked President Trump from deploying the National Guard to Portland until at least Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, issued the ruling late Sunday, saying she “found no credible evidence” that protests in Portland grew out of control before the president federalized the Guard, the Associated Press reported.

The city of Portland and the state of Oregon sued in September to block the Guard deployment. The two sides of the case argued over whether protests at Portland's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building met the conditions for using the military domestically under federal law.

Immergut said in her order that she would issue a final ruling on Friday due to the voluminous evidence presented at the three-day trial, including more than 750 exhibits.

The Trump administration argued that the purpose of deploying the Guard is to protect federal personnel and property where protests are occurring or likely to occur.

However, Immergut wrote that most of the violence appeared to be between protesters and counter-protesters, finding no evidence of “significant damage” to the immigration facility at the center of the protests.

“Based on the trial testimony, this Court finds no credible evidence that during the approximately two months before the President’s federalization order, protests grew out of control or involved more than isolated and sporadic instances of violent conduct that resulted in no serious injuries to federal personnel,” Immergut wrote.

Early last month, Immergut issued two orders that blocked the deployment of the Guard leading up to the trial. She previously found that the Trump administration had failed to show that the legal requirements were met for mobilizing the Guard. Immergut described Trump's assessment of Portland, which he has called “war-ravaged” with “fires all over the place,” as “simply untethered to the facts.”

One of her orders was paused by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late last month. On Tuesday, the appeals court vacated that decision and said it would rehear the case before an 11-judge panel. Until that occurs, the appeals court’s initial order from early October — under which the Guard is federalized but not deployed — remains in effect.