The extension follows a Wednesday morning status conference called to examine whether the government violated the original order when two of the commercials continued to run into early Monday after Rochon's 6:45 p.m. Sunday deadline to cancel them. The Justice Department apologized on Monday for the delay, saying Homeland Security lawyers did not see an email about the ruling until the next morning.
Rochon initially granted a 14 day freeze after finding that the Department of Homeland Security likely broke federal law by financing the campaign with border security funds outside Congress's authorized purposes and in violation of restrictions on partisan propaganda. About $19 million in airtime had already been spent under a $20 million Customs and Border Protection contract, even after Trump said on Oct. 5 that he and his MAGA Inc. super PAC would pay for the spots.