Search Results: new order

A federal judge temporarily restricted access by DOGE to the Treasury payment and data systems, saying there was a risk of “irreparable harm.”

The Trump administration’s new policy of allowing political appointees and “special government employees” access to highly sensitive information such as bank details, heightens the risk of leaks and of the systems becoming more vulnerable.

Judge Engelmayer ordered any such official who had been granted access to the systems since Jan. 20 to “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” He also restricted the Trump administration from granting access to those categories of officials.

The defendants — President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Treasury Department — must appear on Feb. 14 before Judge Jeannette A. Vargas.

If Trump fails to comply with the emergency order, it is unclear how it might be enforced. The Constitution says that a president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” but courts have rarely been tested by a chief executive who has ignored their orders.

Federal officials have sometimes respond with dawdling or grudging compliance. Outright disobedience is exceedingly rare. There has been no clear example of “open presidential defiance of court orders since 1865,”.

AG Letitia James of NY with 18 other Democratic state attorneys general, charging that when Trump had given Musk the run of government computer systems, he had breached protections enshrined in the Constitution and “failed to faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress". They said POTUS had given “virtually unfettered access” to the most sensitive information to college kids who worked for Mr. Musk under DOGE.

Musk has publicly stated his intention to “recklessly freeze streams of federal funding without warning,”.

If federal officials fail to comply with the order limiting DOGE, he may hold them in contempt for fines & imprisonment.