Posted on 02/10/2025 9:07:09 AM PST by Red Badger
The Trump administration is making an urgent push to end a court order barring top officials’ access to the federal government’s massive payment system operated by the Treasury Department, saying the “remarkable intrusion” is unconstitutional and should be “dissolved immediately.”
“Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the president,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in the 11-page filing, calling the order “impermissible” and “anti-constitutional.”
The attorneys are asking Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas to quickly end or modify the order to ensure Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his top leadership can be briefed on the payment system and perform their legally required roles.
A different federal judge, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, issued the order early Saturday, barring system access to all but career employees who had taken proper trainings. That order came in response to states that sued over the access that Elon Musk allies embedded within Treasury had been given, arguing that the team from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency appeared to be putting the enormous database at risk of hacking or manipulation.
Justice Department lawyers say they are negotiating with the states to come up with a quick agreement to narrow Engelmayer’s order. Early Monday, Vargas said that if they failed to reach an agreement by 5 p.m. she would demand an expedited review of the matter by late Monday night.
The Engelmayer order set off a furor among Trump allies who suggested it was an improper incursion by a judge against the president’s ability to operate the Treasury that might even bar Bessent himself from fully running the department. Several Trump allies suggested the administration should consider ignoring the order.
But in the filing, the Justice Department emphasizes that Treasury officials have been adhering to the strict limits imposed by Engelmayer. Only one official covered by the order — Musk ally Thomas Krause — had access to the system prior to the judge’s restriction. In a seven-page statement, Krause emphasized he has discontinued access and said he had complied with the orders limits.
Prior to those limits, Krause said his access was considered “over the shoulder” — meaning he could view data accessed by other authorized Treasury employees as well as copies of “source code.” The Justice Department indicated that a second Musk ally — Marko Elez — who resigned last week amid a furor over racist social media posts, had previously had access to copies of the code in a “sandbox environment.” Though Musk has suggested rehiring Elez, the late Sunday filing from the Justice Department only mentions his departure and indicates he returned his equipment and credentials.
Krause emphasized that despite his adherence to the order, it’s urgent for Treasury leaders to resume access to the system to fulfill their responsibilities. In addition, the system is routinely accessed by outside agencies and organizations who make payments to the government.
The Justice Department is urging Vargas to end Engelmayer’s restrictions immediately or, short of that, postpone them until additional arguments can be made in court.
BIDEN wouldn’t have stopped.
The deep state is deeper than I could ever have imagined.
Its absurd - this judge is claiming that Trump and his Treasury secretary do not have control/access to the very agencies they are elected to manage.
Its also telling how the judge indicates this must be left to “career civil servants.”
Its the same line of BS the hidden deep-state pulled with decades of the “classified documents” nonsense.
I thoroughly enjoyed this version of Wrecking Ball from Miley Cyrus. Although, a man must have made it given the boobs they put on Bondi
https://x.com/ENIMEMES/status/1888407379269791800
Urgent push, my ass. What he’s doing is not going along with it and maybe a little passive aggression here and there.
Why not get a “District judge” somewhere else, perhaps in a Red State, to issue a ruling DEMANDING Trump and DOGE access treasury records?
That judge would have just as much authority.
And then the two ridiculous orders would cancel each other out.
Engelmayer is like Bernie Sanders he’s never worked a job outside of government. Went to the top doing the backstroke.
What the Democrats don’t understand is that doge has already accessed the records and run their computer programs on it and have done the audit. They have already identified the problems and brought it to the attention of the treasure Secretary. They’ve now moved onto their next audit.
As usual, the Democrats are a day late and $1000 short. Things with those are moving such a rapid paste. The Democrats can’t keep up with what’s going on and they can’t stop it.
Then why have elections at all?.............
Bet there is something within the treasury dept that is much worse than we could imagine.
The Democrats use lawfare, but don’t follow the law. Biden completely ignored the Constitution (See use of FEMA money for Illegal alien in luxury hotels and Student loan forgiveness as simple examples).
Trump is a victim of lawfare, and tries to follow the Constitution. The ‘judges’ don’t follow the law, especially in the State of NY.
SCOTUS needs to review emergently.
This is the same phenom that occurred in the 2020 election when blue-controlled polling places delayed everything so they could print more ballots.
This is a dealying tactic so paper can be burned and drives erased. If this persists the commie trash will win. Forever.
It’s a fair question and I’m sure its an option urgently being considered. I t undermines the legal path that Trump’s team is taking now but if this is unsuccessful, I would think it is going to happen. At some point the Supremes will feel obligated to step into the chaos created.
I believe it will be resolved by the end of the week.
Its not enough to try and get this order changed. This judge need to pay serious legal consequences for his actions.
You know the Libs would sent their street soldiers to protest at the Judge’s house which of course is against the law, but that did not stop the protests at the Supreme Court Justices’ houses which went on for a month or longer……. Just saying it’s kind of interesting that one side can break the law with no consequences and the other side has to follow.🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
You think Trump might be doing Ali’s ‘rope-a-dope’ strategy?
“Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”. Perhaps the bee sting will come later this week.
That was pretty funny! 🤣
I think it’s fair to say a guy made it.
I wonder why they gave Pete a leafblower?
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