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🔵 Judge Blocks DOGE
Citizen Frank
February 08, 2025
Good morning. It’s Saturday, February 8.
A federal judge in an overnight ruling Saturday blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems used to dole out trillions of dollars each year.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer’s ruling is more extensive than the agreement the administration reached earlier in the week to temporarily limit access to two DOGE personnel.
Engelmayer blocked the Treasury Department from providing access to anyone “other than civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties.” It explicitly prohibits special government employees and those detailed from outside the department.
Elon Musk’s advisory commission, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has deployed teams within multiple federal agencies to use technology to cut costs and streamline processes.
Moving at breakneck speed within the opening weeks of the second Trump administration, Musk’s engineers and advisers have accessed information technology (IT) systems in at least three federal departments.
DOGE’s actions, which Musk says are aimed at reducing government spending and waste, have spurred a backlash from some Democratic lawmakers who describe it as a breach of congressional oversight by an unelected “special government employee.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was caught on a hot mic saying President Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st state was “a real thing” — warning that Trump was after the country’s rich critical minerals resources.
Trudeau made the comments to Canadian business and labor leaders in a closed door meeting Friday in remarks that were accidentally broadcast on a loudspeaker, CBS News reported.
“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Trudeau said, according to The Daily Beast.
In an embarrassing on-air gaffe Friday night, CNN mixed up former President Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden leading to heavy mockery of the flailing network.
“OBAMA BIN LADEN” appeared on a graphic used during “CNN News Central” while reporting out a story about President Trump’s plan to send illegal migrants to Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
Anchor Boris Sanchez never said “Obama Bin Laden” himself but it did appear behind him on a graphic talking about the treatment of Al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah — who still lives at the detention center.
A coalition of 14 state attorneys general said on Thursday that they will file a lawsuit to stop the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive federal payment systems.
The coalition said that DOGE, an advisory committee led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has no authority to access federal government systems—which they said contain Americans’ personal data, state bank account data, and “some of our country’s most sensitive data.”
“This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” the coalition said in a statement released by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed two bills Friday providing $50 million to fight President Donald Trump’s policies — after returning from a trip to Washington, DC, where he sought federal aid money for recent wildfires in his state.
Both bills were passed after a special legislative session called by Newsom after the election to prepare California to lead the opposition to the second Trump administration.
Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature reached a deal to fund the anti-Trump effort even as the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire were still smoldering in Los Angeles.
President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that his administration will investigate the long-delayed California high-speed rail project, which was authorized by voters in the state in 2008.
California has dedicated billions to the project so far, yet no track has been laid. According to recent California High-Speed Rail Authority disclosures, 38 structures and 39 miles of guideway have been completed after spending $13.6 billion.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said it is the “worst managed project” he has seen and “hundreds of billions of dollars” over budget.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the United Kingdom’s deep state has demanded that Apple create a back door for them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud—what would be an unprecedented erosion of online privacy and civil liberties.
Citing anonymous sources, the Post reported that the British government’s undisclosed order was issued last month. It reportedly requires Apple to give officials blanket capability to view fully encrypted material.
Typically, Apple has assisted authorities on a case-by-case basis—such as helping the FBI access a terrorist’s phone, for example. The Post noted that the access sought by the UK “has no known precedent in major democracies.”
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