The Trump administration is fighting back against a clearly unconstitutional court order barring top officials from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system to search for fraud, waste, and corruption.
Pam Bondi: "There is a reason the people at Treasury don't want the Secretary of Treasury nor DOGE to have those records. There was a reason USAID, they did not want anyone to have those records." pic.twitter.com/Vpbdg1Mjzy
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 9, 2025
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, other top Treasury officials, and employees at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had just begun investigating the Treasury Department’s massive payment system when an Obama-appointed judge suddenly issued a blatantly unconstitutional order barring them from doing so.
I read the ruling in the case against DOGE and the Treasury Department.
It's 4 pages. It's all boilerplate and generic language.
ZERO substantive legal analysis.
See for yourself.
This isn't remotely credible. pic.twitter.com/SXNOKBI3KT
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) February 9, 2025
On February 8, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that nearly all Trump administration officials and all DOGE employees are barred from accessing Treasury Department records for at least one week — siding with 19 Democrat attorneys general who filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in response to DOGE attempting to weed out fraud, waste, and corruption within the Treasury Department. DOGE does not have the authority to take any actions, and can only make recommendations to the Trump administration based on the results of its investigations.
The ruling was even more shocking considering the fact that it was done ex parte — meaning that Trump administration attorneys were not even allowed to argue their side and weren’t even warned that the judge was considering making a ruling.
While Trump’s officials are not allowed access to the Treasury Department, the unelected bureaucrats who have been running it behind the scenes are still allowed access — as the judge’s ruling effectively declared that the deep state has more power than the elected president’s appointees.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion in response to Engelmayer’s shocking ruling — requesting that Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas end or amend the ruling. The DOJ argued in the motion that Engelmayer’s ruling was a “remarkable intrusion” and obviously unconstitutional.
“Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the president,” the filing read, according to Politico.
The DOJ also requested in the motion that the Treasury Secretary and other top Treasury officials be briefed on the department’s payment system and be allowed to perform their legally required duties.
This news comes as Democrats have been relentlessly attacking DOGE and Musk, throwing tantrums in press conferences about Musk and the DOGE team being “unelected,” despite the fact that Trump specifically campaigned on hiring Musk and creating DOGE to eliminate fraud, waste, and corruption in the government. Everyone who voted for Trump was well aware of this fact during the 2024 election cycle, meaning that they had effectively voted for Musk and DOGE.
Meanwhile, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk slammed Engelmayer’s ruling in a post on X, noting: “The judge cites no law or logic to support this unprecedented order, because it defies both. The judge’s ruling is, in essence, that Scott Bessent simply occupies a ceremonial position without real power, like the King of England. This is a grenade thrown into the functioning of the Treasury Department.”
New York Judge Paul Engelmayer just forbade all political appointees — including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — from accessing Dept. of Treasury data, all based on Blueanon conspiracy theories!!
Those theories couldn't be challenged because the order was EX PARTE — meaning…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 8, 2025
