The war of words between Argentina and the US courts continues.
A top Argentina official on Monday asked President Obama to rein in the judge overseeing its long-running battle with hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer.
Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich called on Obama to stop Manhattan Judge Thomas Griesa from interfering with its sovereign rights.
On Friday, Griesa threatened Argentina with a contempt citation if it didn’t quit making false statements in a series of newspaper ads about its recent debt default.
The ads claimed that Argentina is trying to pay its bondholders but that Griesa is stopping it from doing so. Argentina sent $539 million to pay bondholders who agreed to a debt swap, but bond trustee Bank of Mellon New York held on to it.
Griesa ordered the bank not to pay the bondholders until Argentina also paid Singer and other holdout bondholders in full.
Argentina refused to pay the holdouts, which it calls “vultures.”