Judge blocks DOGE access to Treasury data after NY AG Letitia James leads blue states in lawsuit

[Ghost Bear]

No one said not to also appeal this,

You just seemed to infer it is no big deal.  It is, due to Time and keeping the opposition offbalance

You're mentioning only the slowness of the courts seemed to imply you did not think the effort of filing an appeal would be worthwhile.

And yes, I do not think it would be a big deal; when filing the appeal, they can also ask for an injunction blocking enforcement of the judge's ruling, on the grounds that the ruling would give employees at Treasury time to destroy or falsify records. Getting the Justice Department involved would also ratchet up the pressure on the Democrats by implying that lawbreaking is suspected.

Turns out that I have read some military history. Pressing a fast attack is a good strategy, but so is attacking on multiple fronts.

[rangerrebew]

Judge's 'hopelessly ambiguous' order barring DOGE from Treasury sparks concern Bessent may also be locked out
Opinion by Emma Colton • 14h

No question DOGE will uncover waste, fraud, abuse during Medicare audit: Dr. Marc Siegel
 
A federal judge's order barring DOGE from accessing Treasury Department data is vague enough that some legal experts believe it even blocks the agency's secretary from reviewing records and systems, prompting Republicans to blast what they consider judicial overreach.

U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Paul Engelmayer, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued a temporary restraining order Saturday that sided with 19 Democratic state attorneys general who claimed that giving DOGE "full access" to the Treasury’s payment systems violates the law. The lawsuit was spearheaded by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime Trump foe who said her office is "prepared to fight back" after President Donald Trump's November election win.
 
"The judge’s order is rightly being attacked as, at worse, barring the secretary of the Treasury from accessing the Treasury Department’s databases and at best, at being hopelessly ambiguous and confusing," the Federalist's senior legal correspondent Margot Cleveland told Fox News Digital on Sunday of the order.

The judge's sweeping order, issued Saturday, bars DOGE from accessing the Treasury system until at least Feb. 14, when Engelmayer scheduled a hearing to revisit the matter.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/judge-s-hopelessly-ambiguous-order-barring-doge-from-treasury-sparks-concern-bessent-may-also-be-locked-out/ar-AA1yHX26?ocid=widgetonlockscreen&cvid=084b7a11aa754a0c8f1d3ce777164aec&ei=63

[rangerrebew]

Is this article suggesting their is bias in the judiciary and this particular judge is protecting democrats?

[mystery-ak]

Trump admin files motion to vacate restraining order prohibiting DOGE access to Treasury payment systems
The Trump Administration is accused of illegally providing DOGE with unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems
By Landon Mion Fox News
Published February 10, 2025 5:23am EST

The Trump administration has filed a motion to vacate or modify a court's temporary restraining order blocking the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and political appointees from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment records.

In the motion, Cloud Software Group, Inc. CEO Tom Krause argued that "it is important that high-level political appointees, such as the Treasury Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chief of Staff, and Under Secretaries, retain the ability to attend briefings concerning information obtained from the data or systems from Treasury employees with appropriate access to the data or systems in order to perform their job duties."

Although Krause, who was working at Treasury as a special government employee, admitted that "these high-level officials do not ordinarily need to receive access to or review data from such systems," he said an event could conceivably occur that could warrant them needing access.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order on Saturday that "political appointees, special government employees and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department access to Treasury Department payment systems or any other data maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information."

more
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admin-files-motion-vacate-restraining-order-prohibiting-doge-access-treasury-payment-systems

[Smokin Joe]

Is this article suggesting their is bias in the judiciary and this particular judge is protecting democrats?

The standard bearer for this assault is a lawfare prosecutor. All you need to know. Turn the AI loose on her funding...and see where the rodents are.

[Timber Rattler]

RI federal judge says Trump administration violated funding freeze court order

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/ri-federal-judge-says-trump-administration-violated-funding-freeze-court-order/

A Rhode Island federal judge on Monday found the Trump administration in violation of a court order, telling the new president to “immediately restore frozen funding.”

U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell granted a “motion for enforcement” of a temporary restraining order, or TRO, he signed last month, blocking President Donald Trump’s freeze of Congress-approved funds across the country.

“The states have presented evidence in this motion that the defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds,” McConnell wrote in his decision Monday.

“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO,” he added.

McConnell ordered the federal government to “immediately end any federal funding pause” until he decides on whether to make the order more permanent through a preliminary injunction.

EXCERPT

So, Judge, who's going to be enforcing your blatantly unconstitutional order?

[mountaineer]

DOGE team expected to visit federal office in West Virginia this week
by: Joey Rather   
Posted: Feb 10, 2025 / 05:44 PM EST   
Updated: Feb 10, 2025 / 05:46 PM EST   

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — Following a controversial first few weeks of action, agents from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are expected to visit West Virginia in the coming days amid the agency’s “financial audit” of the U.S. Government.

Sources told nonprofit investigators ProPublica last week that the DOGE team will be dispatched to the U.S. Treasury Department’s building in Parkersburg on Tuesday, with DOGE agents set to gain “read-only” access to the department’s data, including the U.S. Government’s central accounting system.

Parkersburg is home to the U.S. Bureau of Fiscal Services—previously known as Public Debt—which hosts the federal government’s Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS). The U.S. Treasury’s website says that the CARS system serves as “the electronic system of record for the government’s financial data” and handles accounting and reporting for all federal agencies.  ...

https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/west-virginia/doge-team-expected-to-visit-federal-office-in-west-virginia-this-week/

[IsailedawayfromFR]

RI federal judge says Trump administration violated funding freeze court order

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/ri-federal-judge-says-trump-administration-violated-funding-freeze-court-order/

EXCERPT

So, Judge, who's going to be enforcing your blatantly unconstitutional order?

The imperial dictator judge has no clothes on.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Ah, yes, playing the literalist card - one of the last refuges of the incompetent.  I didn't actually say X, Y, or Z.  Yes, actually, you most definitely implied that "shock and awe" required ignoring the process for the sake of pursuing one's political agenda.

Kinda cute saying uncovering fraud, waste and other illegalities are 'pursuing one's political agenda'.

You should be proud of espousing the leftists' talking points, which prioritize process over substance.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

And now it looks like Trump kicked the judge to the curb so a new judge has been assigned to this case.

Trump Administration Fights Judicial Tyranny
I wrote here about the absurd order issued by a Democratic Party judge that purports to bar the Secretary of the Treasury, along with many others, from accessing the Treasury Department’s data. The judge who issued that ex parte order–that means he issued it without even waiting to hear from the government–was Paul Engelmayer. Engelmayer sits in the Southern District of New York, a venue that has no apparent connection to the Treasury Department’s operations.

The Trump administration has now moved urgently to correct Engelmayer’s error. The linked document is a Memorandum in support of a Motion to Dissolve, Clarify or Modify Engelmayer’s improvidently granted temporary restraining order. The Treasury Department’s lawyers begin by giving Engelmayer a lesson in constitutional law that he shouldn’t need:

At approximately 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 8, 2025, this Court issued an ex parte Temporary Restraining Order that purported to limit access to a vast swath of Treasury systems to only “civil servants,” while prohibiting “all political appointees” from doing the same. On its face, the Order could be read to cover all political leadership within Treasury—including even Secretary Bessent. 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.

While incompetent, Judge Engelmayer’s order shows what the Left really believes: the judge and the Democratic Party are on the side of the permanent bureaucracy, democracy–the voters–be damned.

So who is Judge Engelmayer? A reader points out that he a notable pupil of Larry Tribe, the law professor turned far-left internet crank. Tribe credited Engelmayer as one of researchers on the Second Edition of Tribe’s treatise on constitutional law:

Judge Engelmayer had this case just long enough to issue a TRO. It has now been assigned to another judge, Jeannette Vargas, a brand-new Joe Biden appointee. I have no idea how she will respond to the Treasury Department’s current motion. One hopes she has enough integrity to be embarrassed by what Engelmayer did. But what is going on now, as the Democrats try feverishly to block the Trump administration from carrying out the will of the voters, is politics, not law.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/02/trump-administration-fights-judicial-tyranny.php

[IsailedawayfromFR]

And here's the timeline of an outlaw judge deciding to become dictator of the US government.  Some here support this as proper way for laws to be judged by our judicial branch.

Timeline: Federal Judge Didn’t Even Read Final Complaint Before Enjoining Trump
By: John A. Lucas
February 13, 2025

At the very least, Judge Paul Engelmayer’s decision should bring on a congressional impeachment inquiry.

New York federal Judge Paul Engelmayer’s temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s access to Treasury documents happened so fast it’s unlikely he carefully read the case filings. The filings from the 19 suing Democrat state attorneys generals were so voluminous, and Engelmayer’s order was entered so quickly, that it could not possibly have been the product of reasoned judicial analysis and reflection.  The stench is so bad, questions of possible corruption must be answered.

Engelmayer is the first judge ever to grant a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the president of the United States that also forbids a cabinet secretary from accessing his own records without giving these parties an opportunity to respond. He offered zero analysis of his constitutional authority to make such a radical ruling, the federal rule governing injunctions and temporary restraining orders, or why he is enabling fraud and grift by blocking access to records that show who got government money and for what.

The next court hearing scheduled in this case is Feb. 14. I wrote an earlier article focused on some of the procedural defects in the plaintiff states’ request for a TRO and Engelmayer’s order keeping Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, from investigating federal payments. New information shows the situation was much worse than suggested by my earlier observation that “Engelmayer’s Order was a very rushed, put-up job.”

As I wrote earlier, “After Engelmayer got the States’ Complaint and related filings on Friday night, he wasted no time in ruling on the application for a TRO. In a feat of seeming super-human efficiency and concentration, he must somehow have reviewed and diligently analyzed the 80+ pages of the Complaint and the Memorandum of Law, carefully read at least some of the 100+ court opinions, articles and other sources cited by the Plaintiffs, and concentrated on it all very carefully before entering his unprecedented Order granting the request for a TRO.”

The situation is actually worse than that. Here’s the timeline of the court filings. All these initial documents were filed by New York Special Trial Counsel Colleen Faherty.

Friday, February 7

7:32 p.m. — Faherty sent an email to two government lawyers advising them “of the States [sic] concerns about Defendants’ harmful conduct and the States [sic] intent to seek immediate temporary relief.”

7:39 p.m. — Seven minutes later, Faherty “filed” a 200-plus paragraph, 60-page “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief,” which included an “emergency” request for a TRO. The court immediately filed it as “Filing Error – Deficient Pleading.”

This was a technical error in the way the complaint was filed in the court’s electronic filing system. Nevertheless, the filing was defective, and Faherty was directed to re-file the complaint.

10:09 p.m. — Faherty filed a “Proposed Order” for the judge to see what she wanted the TRO to say.

10:13 p.m. — The coalition of Democrat attorneys general filed a 40-page legal memorandum in support of the requested TRO. It included more than 27 pages of discussion and citations to 54 court opinions.

10:15 p.m. — The court received an “affirmation of Colleen K. Faherty” that affirmed she had sent the 7:32 p.m. e-mail to the government lawyers.

Saturday, February 8

12:39 a.m. — Judge Engelmayer entered his order granting the TRO.

1:04 a.m. — Faherty e-mailed four items — the complaint, the legal memorandum, her prior affirmation, and the order granting the TRO — to two government lawyers, only one of whom had been a recipient of her 7:32 p.m. email.

1:14 a.m. — The complaint was refiled with the deficiency corrected. Note that a properly filed complaint was not filed until more than a half-hour after Judge Engelmayer had already entered his order.

5:48 p.m. — This is when Faherty’s certification arrived that, at 1:04 a.m., she had emailed the above documents to the government lawyers.

As I pointed out in my initial article, “Anyone attempting to read the suit and materials submitted with it would be faced with a monumental task, even if they had help. The Complaint runs to 200-plus paragraphs in almost 60 pages. In the complaint alone, the plaintiffs cited more than 50 articles and other sources that they thought were of sufficient importance to include in it. It was accompanied by a 40-page legal Memorandum that includes more than 27 pages of discussion, and citations to 54 court opinions.”

The accelerated timeline is simply incredible, especially in view of the voluminous materials that any diligent judge would analyze to render a proper opinion. And I mean “incredible” in its literal sense of “not to be believed.”

The last documents filed in support of the request for a TRO were at 10:13 and 10:15 p.m. These included the legal memorandum with its citation to 54 court opinions. Did Engelmayer read these? Not a chance. Did he read any of them? If he did, you can’t tell it from his order, other than one citation from him to a single case that had no resemblance to the case before him.

Even if Engelmayer had received and began to study these materials immediately after he had them all, he spent less than two-and-one-half hours reviewing and analyzing the materials presented to him before entering his order at 12:39 a.m.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/13/timeline-fed-judge-didnt-even-read-final-complaint-before-enjoining-trump/