Trump admin moves to withhold federal funds from Maine over trans athlete dispute

(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Department of Education said Friday that it will proceed with withholding federal funds from Maine after officials in the state refused to sign a Title IX resolution agreement that would bar transgender athletes from competing in girls' sports in the state.

The matter will also be deferred to the Department of Justice "for further enforcement action," the department said in a statement.

The actions come after the state informed the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in a letter on Friday that the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Office of the Attorney General will not sign the resolution agreement.

"Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams," Maine Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster stated in the letter. "Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds. To the contrary, various federal courts have held that Title IX and/or the Equal Protection Clause require schools to allow such participation."

Federal officials last month said they found the Maine Department of Education in noncompliance with President Donald Trump's executive order issued on Feb. 5 that bans transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.

In a final warning letter sent to the state on March 31, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights gave the Maine Department of Education until April 11 to sign the resolution agreement before moving forward with the consequences for noncompliance.

The Department of Education said Friday it will now "initiate an administrative proceeding to adjudicate termination of MDOE’s federal K-12 education funding, including formula and discretionary grants," as well as refer the case to the DOJ.

“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement on Friday. “The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department."

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills "would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom -- be careful what you wish for. Now she will see the Trump Administration in court," he added.

Mills previously told Trump she would see him in court over the matter at a White House event with a bipartisan group of governors in February.

As Trump discussed his executive order banning transgender athletes from women's sports, he asked Mills directly, "Are you not going to comply with that?"

She responded that she would comply with state and federal laws.

"Well, I'm -- we are the federal law," Trump said, adding, "Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't."

Mills responded: "See you in court."

"Good," Trump replied. "I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be an easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics."

After the White House gathering, Mills responded to Trump's threat to withhold federal funding in a statement, saying, "If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President's threats."

ABC News' Hannah Demissie, Alexandra Hutzler, and Jack Moore contributed to this report.

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