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Samsung User
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Canva, where productivity meets creativity. Now showing on computer screens everywhere. Love your work@canva.com we got a new court preliminary injunction coming out of the District of Columbia. In breaking news led by Judge Cooper, it could blow the doors wide open about Doge Musk and be one step closer to getting Musk out of the government. It's a ruling in which Judge Cooper has found that Doge Services run by Elon Musk is likely a federal agency exercising independent agency authority, independent from the President and therefore is subject to Freedom of Information act public records requests. Remember that DOGE has tried to shield itself in secrecy, combining secrecy with velocity in order to do maximum damage and impact into the government. And that is the exact reasons that Judge Cooper has ruled that a preliminary injunction should result here to make DOGE subject to foia, to make the. The. The commit the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as crew. Their demand for records from the Office of Management of Budget and the OFF and the Office of DOGE itself. Public records. Spill out into the public about what Elon Musk is doing, how he's doing it, how he's accessing personal and financial information and records, who he's firing, who he's defunding, all coming out of this one case. Tide has turned on. Michael Popak, you're on the Midas Dutch network and Legal af. Let's talk about the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington CREW versus the US Doge Service and Judge Cooper's new decision. We talked a lot about recently on Legal af, Ben Meisellis and me in particular about there being a need to establish that Doge and Elon Musk are subject to public records law sunshine in the government Law sunshine, the best disinfectant and antiseptic. We need to know what's going on. Judge Cooper remarked in his 37 page order, part of which I'm going to read to you in a moment, that it is obvious that Doge and Musk were set up, particularly by Donald Trump, to use surprise, to use velocity, to use speed and secret and secretiveness and secrecy in order to execute their maximum plan to slash the federal budget, to slash federal funding, to slash personnel, federal workers in a way that wouldn't allow for congressional oversight violating the checks, imbalance and separation of powers. And it's that very speed, velocity and secrecy that has motivated Judge Cooper to rule on a preliminary injunction that DOGE is subject to public records requests. And all of this information will now spill out into the public. Now, CREW wanted all this information out by March 10th. That's not happening. The reason they picked March 10th, which is already sort of coming on, is they wanted it out while Congress is debating funding and the judge said it's going to come out on a rolling basis. All of the information about the secret of nature and the secret of work to date of Doge is going to come out in a rolling basis, but I'm not going to make them do it overnight. And that's probably okay. The big story here, and that's why I'm so excited, is that this is like a pinata of information that finally a judge has used the right hammer for. And it's spilled out and we're going to be getting this information, it's going to be made public through this lawsuit. And then of course, all the other lawsuits will be able to use it and commentators like me will be able to use it. Let me read to you some of the troubling aspects, some of the troubling findings that the judge made. Let's start on page three. Over to four, where the judge found out that Doge its members musk have been using an application, a secretive application called Signal, which allows its users to erase information and communications between them on the platform. That is exactly violative of public records laws, which says that agencies have to retain their information so that the public can review it. So he's done, as part of his order, a preservation order, telling them get off a signal you need to retain and not destroy, or what we call spoliate any of your documents or information. Us that's Doge operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy and other ways too. For instance, USDs. That means doge reportedly installed an outside server at OPM to store government staffers personal information, including their email accounts. They've also reported reportedly declined to identify themselves to career officials on request. That's page eight. Over to nine. On page three he talks about the use of Signal. Page three. Doge commenced operations prior to President Trump's second inauguration. During the transition period, USDS employees reportedly communicated via the encrypted messaging application Signal, which is widely used for auto delete functionality. Through this function, users can set Signal to automatically and permanently delete text messages, which is what they have been doing. And that has been troubling the judge as well. Did you know Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the US with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers. They have all the plants your yard needs, like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. Fast Growing Trees makes it easy to get your dream yard order online and get your plants delivered directly to your door in just a few days without ever leaving home. Their alive and thrive guarantee ensures your plants arrive happy and healthy. 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That's an additional 15% off at fast growingtrees.com using the code legalAF at checkout fast growing trees.com code legal AF now's the perfect time to plant use legal AF to save today offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply on page seven, the judge says. In a move viewed by some as pernicious, DOGE has obtained unprecedented access to sensitive personal personal and classified data and payment systems across federal agencies. For instance, USDS teams reportedly received access to a massive trove of personal information from millions of federal employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management and sensitive treasury data, including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems, which also troubles the judge. So the way the judge looks at it, taking media reports about Donald Donald Trump giving Elon Musk so much power, him hollowing out and firing tens of thousands of federal workers, including almost the entirety of US Aid, all because of Elon Musk and defunding as a result. That makes Them an independent agency subject to Freedom of Information act request. Now we know what the Trump administration is going to say in response. He's just an advisor, he's just advising the President. He's covered by the executive immunity and executive privilege. That is going to be the fight we're going to see break out because of Judge Cooper's new decision, first at the D.C. court of Appeals and then up to the United States Supreme Court. But we know and everyone knows from the record that's been established already, from Donald Trump's own comments, from Elon Musk's own comments, from the actual proof of the pudding is in the tasting. We see what he's done, that Elon Musk exercises tremendous independent authority in a way that undercuts and undermines Cabinet members and Congress and its right of oversight. And because of that, he's not just an advisor, he's an executor, he's an implementer. He's a destroyer of worlds that relate to the federal government and proud of it and public about it, except when it comes to releasing public records. And that's where the FOIA Freedom of Information act request comes in and that's where the CREW lawsuit comes into play. So kudos to CREW for having brought the lawsuit, prosecuting it properly and having Judge Cooper rule in their favor. This will now go to the D.C. court of Appeals and a three judge panel on its way to the United States Supreme Court on this fundamental issue. Is Elon Musk a mere advisor, counselor to the President and the President still exercising all of the rights and powers related to the federal agencies and the Cabinet members are too, or is he not? If he's exercising independent, independent, even a slight amount of independent executive power, he's subject to foia. That's what Judge Cooper has found. That's what I believe the Court of Appeals will find and we'll see what happens at the Supreme Court. I'm looking at you, Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett because I know pretty, pretty, pretty darn well, like I know the back of my hand that that Ketanji Brown, Jackson, Sotomayor and Kagan are going to rule that he's not just a mere advisor, he's subject to foia, as is the Office of Management of Budget. But what say you? We need two more votes. Got to count to five. I think, I think my prediction, Amy Coney Barrett's going to side with the other three. And it's going to be up to Roberts to be deciding vote here. And I think he's going to find that because of the record that's been developed that Musk and Doge are subject to public records requests. And we'll be able to get that information which we can then use on the other dozen or more lawsuits involving Doge and Musk. I'll follow it all right here closely and bring it to you here on Midas Dutch and on Legal AF, the podcast, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm Eastern Time, we cover exactly this type of thing at the intersection of law and politics and explain why it matters. So join us. We're the number we're out of top 10 in the world in podcasts. But that's because of you. We're doing the curating, we're doing the commentating, you're doing the watching, listening and engagement. And we appreciate that. And pick us up on all audio podcast platforms as well. If you like your podcast audio fashion, come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel that I curate. And we do this every day, every hour with some amazing new commentators that you haven't seen before. Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. We just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories the intersection of law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe @legalafmtn. That's @legalafmtn.
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