| DOJ Moved to
Vacate Political Appointees
Barred from Treasury Data
Bessent OKed But
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
Feb 11 – New York and other
states on Friday filed for an
injunction against the Trump
administration and early
Saturday morning obtained a
Temporary Restraining Order
that the Administration
is
"restrained from
granting access to all
political appointees, special
government employees, and
government employees detailed
from an agency outside the
Treasury Department, 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."
Inner City Press, which
closely covers the SDNY court,
immediately put the order on
its DocumentCloud here.
A day later questions were
being raised whether the
restrained "political
appointees" included Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent.
Yes. After 11 pm
on Sunday, February 9 DOJ
filed to vacate the TRO,
arguing that "the Order could
be read to cover all political
leadership within
Treasury—including even
Secretary Bessent."Memo of law
on Patreon here.
After midnight,
Judge Vargas ordered: If no
agreement is reached,
Plaintiffs' response to the
Motion shall be due by 5 pm on
Feb 10.
At 4:49 pm the
states filed opposition,
saying the TRO should only be
modified to allow the Federal
Reserve Bank of Kansas City
the access it had before
January 20. Patreon here.
On February 11
Judge Vargas ruled that "the
Court grants the motion to
modify the February 8 TRO to
clarify that the Secretary of
the Treasury and other
Senate-confirmed senior
Treasury Officers are not
prohibited from accessing
Treasury’s payment systems.
However the Complaint alleges
that the challenged Agency
Action includes granting
“expanded access to BFS
payment systems to political
appointees and ‘special
government employees’”
affiliated with the Department
of Government Efficiency. And
the harms alleged in the
Complaint that Judge
Engelmayer determined were
sufficient to warrant the
grant of the ex parte TRO are
plainly linked to the alleged
grant of access to the BFS
payment systems to such
political appointees and
special government employees.
Order here.
Analysis
including on how this midnight
fight on clarifying the scope
of the order might have been
avoided is on X for
Subscribers here
and Substack here
Inner City
Press will be
reporting in
real time on
the case.
The case is State
of New York, et al. v. Donald
J. Trump, et al., 1:25-cv-1144
(Vargas)
***
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