In a stunning and sweeping emergency injunction that has even stunned the people who demanded it, a Manhattan-based District Judge has just removed Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent from his authority over the Treasury Department; blocked any political appointee from accessing records within the Treasury Department; blocked any “special appointee” of President Trump from records within Treasury; and demanded that all information previously extracted be destroyed.
The emergency injunction was signed by District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan, {Ruling pdf Here} determined without any input from the Trump administration and applies until Friday, February 14, 2025, when U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas will hear the full arguments of the lawsuit.
The emergency ruling comes as a result of 15 (Soros installed) attorneys general from New Jersey, New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all filed suit in New York seeking to block Elon Musk and DOGE from access to information that would reveal how activist groups in their states have been funded by the U.S. government. [Link to Press Release Here]
WASHINGTON – […] The lawsuit said Musk and his team could disrupt federal funding for health clinics, preschools, climate initiatives, and other programs, and that Republican President Donald Trump could use the information to further his political agenda.
DOGE’s access to the system also “poses huge cybersecurity risks that put vast amounts of funding for the States and their residents in peril,” the state attorneys general said. They sought a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE’s access.
The judge, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, said the states’ claims were “particularly strong” and warranted him acting on their request for emergency relief pending a further hearing before another judge on February 14.
“That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking,” Engelmayer wrote.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat whose office is leading the case, welcomed the ruling, saying nobody was above the law and that Americans across the country had been horrified by the DOGE team’s unfettered access to their data.
“We knew the Trump administration’s choice to give this access to unauthorized individuals was illegal, and this morning, a federal court agreed,” James said in a statement.
“Now, Americans can trust that Musk – the world’s richest man – and his friends will not have free rein over their personal information while our lawsuit proceeds.”
Engelmayer’s order bars access from being granted to Treasury Department payment and data systems by political appointees, special government employees and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department.
The judge also directed that anyone prohibited under his order from accessing those systems to immediately destroy anything they copied or downloaded. (read more)
The order by the judge is transparent judicial activism; it will almost certainly be overturned and nullified by later rulings. However, it creates blocks and slows down the goal of the Dept of Government Efficiency and the objective of the Trump administration.
On what basis do states think they can sue the federal government to stop the federal government from auditing federal spending? How can a judge block the executive branch from executing the functions of the executive branch? This Lawfare activism is ridiculous.
Within the ruling:
…”restrained from granting access to any Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees, other than to civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties within the Bureau of Fiscal Services who have passed all background checks and security clearances and taken all information security training called for in federal statutes and Treasury Department regulations.” {source}
So, the unelected bureaucracy is in charge and not the Secretary of the Treasury?
This ruling is absolutely insane!
How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?
That’s literally impossible!
Something super shady is going to protect scammers. https://t.co/7Eyy9ZsN7A
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2025
One Wonders what USAID had funneled to the Judge or his family in the past many years?
Last night, I went to sleep listening to Good Lawgic give his take on this ruling. I wasn’t awake to hear everything he had to say.
He said that the TRO is not as well worded as one would wish. The way he sees it, the order does not restrain Scott Bessent from doing his job or viewing any information he may need in the normal course of business. Scott Bessent is put into the same bucket as President Trump.
The way Good Lawgic sees it is that the order itself mostly is about guarding personally identifiable information by refusing to allow DOGE access to such info that could be leaked or hacked.
I think this is Democrat sand and virtue signalling.
If DOGE is looking at the books, where is the PII? This is utter nonsense. Last year the Biden Admin admitted that the Chinese hacked the Treasury and there was no court ruling. I say carry on, this judge can go pound sand and lawyer up for criminal conspiracy to defraud the US.
This is not virtue signaling. It is an attempt to derail efforts to root out corruption and set Trump up for impeachment. These judges must be removed.
Yep, all blue states. Go figure!
What is this so called judge afraid of?
Tax Payers > USAID > Sorass > Corrupt AG’s, DA’s, Judges, Pols
The personal names identified with the corruption.
The pics of him at Diddy’s “Freak Off’s”
The NY Times received 380 million from USAID, and counting. This is corruption and theft. This is what he is hiding.
It’s obviously a conspiracy cooked up by democrat cronies. It will require the ‘judge’ being dealt with harshly.
This is easy…arrest the judge!
The judicial branch is out of Control. They demand absolute respect for their constitutional authority, even as they overstep and ride rough shod over the constitutional authority of the other branches. This sets up a bad situation, where either the other branches have to push back hard, or else they have to give deference to these tyrants in black robes until their illegal and unconstitutional decrees are corrected by the judicial branch itself.
Often, the delay and throwing a monkey wrench into the works is all they were after in the first place.
Trump must ignore this order. He cannot allow a lower court’s silly decision to override the executive branch and create a window by which to hide evidence. Short of SCOTUS…these courts should be ignored. Press on, DOGE!
There is no emergency brake on the judiciary. There must be term limits on them. Further a judge over ruled three times must be removed if he is not following the law.
The process to impeach the bad ones must be streamlined. It’s virtually impossible now and one of the last federal judges to be impeached was a member of congress last time I checked.
The DA’s in other admins have been fired. This should give PDJT a good starting point to take them out. He needs to let these unconstitutional DA’s know there is a new sheriff in town
Not sure how this applies to civil cases?
I’m not a lawyer. IMHO, Engelmayer lost the case. DOGE can’t look at confidential or personally identifiable information, which they most likely are not looking at and don’t need anyway. The order doesn’t prevent them from doing searches, IMHO, if they are not accessing specific data.
Just ignore the injunction…if that worked for Biden, who ignored even SCOTUS, it can work for Trump. The lower court judicial branch is trying to rule over the Executive Branch. Trump should just say no.
Who is going to enforce this order? Someone at Treasury who will be fired if they try to block the secretaries access?
Boycott New York and all things New York. That includes selling anything to them. Seriously, those people need to be brought to heel. Let them rely on each other. Won’t take long to fall apart.
JD Vance…
“Wow, was that easy!” They’re high fiving and will double down. And why not?
They lost the election and still carry on
Yeah, this is stupid to have ONE partisan APPOINTED judge setting someplace stopping an ELECTED POTUS from doing his job. This needs to change ASAP.
The deep state, those who would use the government to destroy America’s Constitution and institutions, bureaucrats, and those communists and anarchists who have infiltrated our institutions cannot bear transparency. Like vampires, sunlight is fatal to them.
\Unelected judges consistently ignore the laws and over reach their authority. They issue proclamations as if Gods, that they have zero authority to do and over rule the other branches of government and the will of the people, They care not that they are trampling the law and precedent without logic, reason, or even evidence. This wanna be Sturmbannfuhrer Englebright, has a long history of lawless actions and should be removed from the bench for trampling the Constitution.
How should Trump respond? Andrew Jackson is said to have responded in his contretemps with Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1834, the Supreme Court determined that the Cherokee Indians owned Northern Georgia. Nevertheless, Andrew Jackson evicted the Indians, reputedly observing that Marshall “has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” On the other hand, Trump must not act like the dictators Lincoln, FDR and Biden.
Lincoln responded in a similar fashion to Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1861. In April of that year, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.. This allowed Lincoln to imprison suspected political opponents without indictment. Over 50,000 Americans were imprisoned for years without trial. Taney said (in “Ex Parte Merryman”) that Lincoln did not have the authority to do this. Lincoln basically ignored him, invoking the novel doctrine of “nonacquiesence.” Telling Taney he was king and would do as he damn well pleased. FDR did this with the Japanese in 1942. Unusually over 50% of the Hawaiian Islands population was Japanese, and under the greatest threat but not were imprisoned. Yet 120,000 Japanese, many citizens, on the mainland were imprisoned without trial losing all their property in the process. Constitution be damned and the SCOTUS and judicial branch did nothing. Recently we saw Biden ignore SCOTUS ruling he could not forgive billions in student loans, lawless behavior. And the Left did and said nothing. It never does when they abuse the law to achieve their goals.
So when these alien judges rule the president when operating within the law cannot carry out his legal duties its time for Trump to lay down the law and tell the courts “enforce it.” By the way such lawless judges must be removed to encouurage the others and show such unelected individuals they are not above the law.
That is in DIRECT VIOLATION of the “WILL” of “We, The People”! It’s an outright illegal “revolution”!
A judge cannot tell a surgeon how to operate. He may not tell a general what tactics he may or may not use. He may not tell an engineer what materials he should use. Our judicial system is out of control because they believe they can control anything and anyone. In the 80s SCOTUS declared briefly the death penalty was unconstitutional. They declared homosexuality legal as they did abortion. Judges are not gods. They must follow the law not dictate them.
The NY State Court judge does not have jurisdiction to dictate orders to the executive branch of the federal government. I would ignore that ruling as it is null and void ab initio.
Oops, sorry, I thought it was a NY State Court judge ruling. My error.
Guess President Trump expected stupid stuff like this. After all, he did lawyer up before taking office. I’d ignore the fool(s) as they have no actually power to do this but I’d also make sure it never happened again. Time to hamstring these idiots.
DOGE needs to look at the Judiciary when it’s done with the Executive Branch! Maybe Elon should do to this judge what Satan Schumer did to the Supreme Court Justices…
Block the Federal judge from entering Federal buildings until this is ruled on by higher courts. Let him “hold court” with folding chairs outside in a parking lot.
Revoke his parking pass. But get him where it really hurts: blackball his country club membership.
Refuse and appeal. Pam Bondi needs to take charge and fight this on federal grounds.
How does a state have standing to remove a senate confirmed cabinet member?
Impeach this judge NOW!
and send a message to other libtard judges suffering from delusions of omnipotence.
NOW, if anything, this ruling is 100% unconstitutional. Ignore it and stand your ground. Where is Bondi?
Trump should immediately go to SCOTUS. If SCOTUS doesn’t take it or blacks that criminal judge, that means the usurper have outed themselves as the insurrectionists, and we’re in the en game.
Democrats complain that President Trump’s DOGE appointed emissaries haven’t been elected and therefore have no right to investigate government waste. Who the hell elected the bureaucrats controlling and managing these agencies? Democrats fear their Deep State collaborators and their wanton waste of taxpayer dollars will be identified and revealed.
Trump needs to recind the judge’s access to any federal property. Then, find a governor to say he can’t access state buildings. Will he say “I can’t do my job without access!” Now he’d see a parallel to his stupid order.
The demokkkrats really want to start a civil war again dont they?
If at first you don’t succeed……..
Impeach. He just dropped his pants, mooned the Senate, the wiped his arse with the US Constitution.
One or more if the following are coordinating this multi BLUE state lawfare
Lisa Monaco
Andrew Weissmann
Mark Zaid
✔️Norm Eisen
Mary Mcord
I say this is OBSESSED PSYCHOPATH Javert 2.0 Norm Eisen’s epiphany.
After all, he did all the impeachment proceedings and subsequent heavy lifting for “Peter Principle” Jack Smith.
He was on the “Maddcow network” this AM hyperventilating with euphoria about this judge.
Watch:
https://grabien.com/file?id=2793748
https://substack.com/home/post/p-156773537
He announced he has 100 lawsuits ready to file.
AG Pam Bondi must file a motion with the Federal Courts that He us a “vexatious litigant” & must be restricted from filing lawsuits.
THEY HAVE NO STANDING.
Constitutional Analysis of Judge Engelmayer’s Intrusion into The Department of Treasury:
https://x.com/oneleggedparrot/status/1888421044802699277
Emergency appeal:
“This is a remarkable intrusion on the Executive Branch that is in direct conflict with Article II of the Constitution, and the unitary structure it provides. There is not and cannot be a basis for distinguishing between “civil servants” and “political appointees.” Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the President. A federal court, consistent with the separation of powers, cannot insulate any portion of that work from the specter of political accountability. No court can issue an injunction that directly severs the clear line of supervision Article II requires. Because the Order on its face draws an impermissible and anti-constitutional distinction, it should be dissolved immediately…”
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.636609/gov.uscourts.nysd.636609.12.0.pdf
“…and demanded that all information previously extracted be destroyed.”
In other words… “we didn’t hide it good enough the first time, we need a do-over so you won’t find it next time!”
Trump should lead the delegation and see if the judge can block the president from access.
Ignore this illegal ruling. Let the clash begin.