https://www.theepochtimes.com/...JgMab0v%2Fli1HMI8%3D

Fourth Circuit Temporarily Allows DOGE to Continue Dismantling USAID

The new ruling came a week after a federal district judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID.

A federal appeals court on March 25 temporarily put a lower court order on hold that blocked Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)-led efforts at downsizing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a brief, unsigned order that the preliminary injunction issued March 18 by Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang “hereby is stayed until the close of business of Thursday, March 27, 2025.”
No reasoning for the decision was provided in the order.

On Feb. 4, in response to a reporter’s question if President Donald Trump planned to “wind down” USAID, the president said “I think so.”

DOGE leader Elon Musk has “done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID ... radical left lunatics,” Trump said.
Judge Chuang’s injunction contained a finding that actions by Musk and the DOGE team to dismantle USAID, which provides humanitarian aid, probably violated the U.S. Constitution.

Shutting down the USAID headquarters, laying off most of the agency’s workforce, and ending the bulk of USAID’s contracts violate the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, Chuang wrote in the March 18 order.
The Trump administration had argued that Article II of the Constitution, which lays out the powers of the executive branch, allows the president to downsize the agency as part of his authority to manage the nation’s foreign relations.

Chuang rejected that argument, writing that the president’s actions here “relate largely to the structure of and resources made available to a federal agency, not to the direct conduct of foreign policy or engagement with foreign governments.”
The actions by Musk and DOGE “harmed … the public interest, because they deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”

The judge directed Musk and DOGE to reinstate access for USAID workers and contractors to USAID systems and ordered them not to take further action regarding terminating contracts or agency workers’ employment.

The Fourth Circuit’s new order came after the U.S. Department of Justice filed an emergency application on March 21 seeking an administrative stay pending an appeal of Chuang’s order.

The application said the injunction should be stayed because Chuang was wrong to determine that Musk “is likely an officer” of the United States whose appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

Musk “is not an officer because he does not exercise ‘significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States,” the document stated, citing the 1991 Supreme Court ruling in Freytag v. Commissioner.

Musk occupies a “purely advisory role [that] falls short of anything that has been recognized as ‘significant authority’ for officer status.”

He cannot make “final decisions that bind the Executive Branch,” and he cannot “make policy” on its behalf, the application said.

On March 5, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must follow through with the payment of $2 billion in foreign aid.
The nation’s highest court left intact a temporary restraining order issued on Feb. 26 by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali of the District of Columbia that compelled USAID and the Department of State to restore funding for contracts that predated Jan. 20—the date of Trump’s inauguration—but were frozen by the Trump administration.

The Supreme Court directed Ali to “clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”

On Jan. 20, Trump issued Executive Order 14169 ordering a “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”
DOGE began operating on the first day of Trump’s second term. The organization recommends cost-cutting measures which the Trump administration may choose to carry out.

Trump issued Executive Order 14158 on Jan. 20, implementing DOGE. The order reorganized the U.S. Digital Service—which President Barack Obama created in 2014 within the Executive Office of the President—as the U.S. DOGE Service, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

The executive order directed the entity to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
... I trust Apple’s face recognition and hack resistance.

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:
So someone got into Waltz’s phone ....

Did Waltz have an iPhone or some other brand? I couldn’t find any evidence on the web that he had an iPhone. If you have a link that says it was an iPhone, please share.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
^^^ Link to info?

The Hill
Throughout the interview, the national security adviser suggested Goldberg’s number was labeled under a different name in his contact list, which resulted in the journalist being added to the message chain.

I looked and cannot find it. Please next time copy the URL and link it to your post, it would make it a lot easier for the rest of us to have verified info.

My bad - I will be certain to do so.

The site was TheHill.com from a website aggregator “Ground News” The URL unusually did not point to the article.

Forensic analysts of the telephones should show whether they were compromised..

"There's nothing in it but the pros and cons of striking now vs waiting a month.

It's not war plans."



Sorry, but that's a war plan. Why would you want the enemy to know anything at all about when you will strike?

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:
"There's nothing in it but the pros and cons of striking now vs waiting a month.

It's not war plans."



Sorry, but that's a war plan. Why would you want the enemy to know anything at all about when you will strike?

What's missing is the specifics on where...

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
^^^ Link to info?

The Hill
Throughout the interview, the national security adviser suggested Goldberg’s number was labeled under a different name in his contact list, which resulted in the journalist being added to the message chain.

I heard on the VINCE Podcast (Vince Coglianese, the replacement for Dan Bongino) that the intended invitee was United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and that this was either a case of 'fat-fingering' while selecting off of the contact list, or that the initials JG were set up as the 'User Name' in the contact list. Regardless a stupid mistake that never should've happened.

I can promise you that if I were discussing such things on unclassified channels, I would be fired. They should just issue a statement that says they will no longer use unclassified coms. They should all be speaking like Paulie in Goodfellas anyway.

Lawsuit already filed, Obama Judge Boasberg is presiding over the Signal Chat Lawsuit that was filed. Lots of information in this X post on what's happening in the lawfare war.


https://x.com/listen_2learn/st.../1904723716149223802

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
That's not fair to some of the honest hardworking fast food workers in this country.

More accurately would be "There is a truckstop in this country missing one of its Lot Lizards."

That is a fair point, and you are right.


.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Lawsuit already filed, Obama Judge Boasberg is presiding over the Signal Chat Lawsuit that was filed. Lots of information in this X post on what's happening in the lawfare war.

How did their lawsuit against Hillary for the mishandling of classified emails go?


.

Re: all this nonsense about how someone got into Waltz's phone and planted a fake contact number pointing to Goldberg...LMAO

You don't seem to understand that a lot of these people in government/gov contacting still can't seem to figure out how to mute themselves on a Zoom or Teams call.


Someone screwed up, plain and simple. Occam's razor and all that.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Lawsuit already filed, Obama Judge Boasberg is presiding over the Signal Chat Lawsuit that was filed. Lots of information in this X post on what's happening in the lawfare war.

https://x.com/listen_2learn/st.../1904723716149223802

Just Stupid. The full Signal text chain has been released and presumably already archived. Who's to say that such 'records' aren't being retained in compliance with the Federal Records Act anyway.

Oh, and it's not like this communication was occurring/stored on an unsecured server in someone's basement/closet either...Just sayin'

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Re: all this nonsense about how someone got into Waltz's phone and planted a fake contact number pointing to Goldberg...LMAO

The fact is that you don't know what happened, but I'm glad to see the situation amuses you.

I am amazed that this has some of you so tied up in knots.

Signal is permitted for use for official comms. This is a fact that has been stated several times with no real push-back from either side.

As I said in an earlier post, this is used by governments and militaries around the world. Someone opined earlier that the messages are stored on the physical device in an unencrypted form. Well, from what I remember about Obozo and his reluctance to give up his personal phone at the start of his illegitimate presidency, the .Gov also secures the devices with software or hardware. I do not know how, but I remember Obozo conceding and using a different, approved device after some back and forth (or they figured-out a way to secure his device... I think it was a blackberry or something that no longer exists).

No one knows how this POS reporter was added to this chat. There are all kinds of rumors floating around. I am sure this is being investigated and once that is done, I am confident it will come out through official channels (probably from the President via Truth Social).

Either way, I don't really care. The reporter is a hack and he has already started back-tracking. He shot his wad and there is nothing there.

So this will be an inconvenience for a little bit. In the meantime, the President will exercise another one of his lawful and constitutional powers that will so piss off anyone that is/identifies as a dem/liberal that this will just become more background noise.

Last thing. I am not a security expert, but I believe Signal is probably as secure/more secure than any app that the government could create. There have always been jokes about government software and systems... DOGE has confirmed that these are not simply jokes, but reality.

https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1904918673250468002

"So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called “war plans” and those “plans” include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.

Those are some really shitty war plans.

This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an “attack plan” (as he now calls it). Not even close.

As I type this, my team and I are traveling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL “war plans”) and talking to troops.

We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes."

Just another data point to add to the conversation regarding the Signal App situation.

I was driving back from a consulting project on a military base in VA this am and was listening to NPR ( It was the only thing I could get) where they were discussing the news.

Before they got into the meat of the story they mentioned that the CEO of NPR, Katherine Maher, was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Signal Foundation which runs the app. Not sure there is anything nefarious but I found that interesting.

I’d like to know how many people were connected to Signal during this conversation, and how long the conversation was. If 20 people were on the call, I could understand someone not speaking and nobody questioning their silence. If it was only 4 or 5, wouldn’t you think at some point someone would notice one participant hasn’t said a thing? Or was this more like a text chat?

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
I’d like to know how many people were connected to Signal during this conversation, and how long the conversation was. If 20 people were on the call, I could understand someone not speaking and nobody questioning their silence. If it was only 4 or 5, wouldn’t you think at some point someone would notice one participant hasn’t said a thing?

lol... "call"?
it's text messaging

400m...

Based on the linked X posting above, it looks like there were at least 18 unique people on the chat.

Regards,

Got it. It was the word chat that threw me off. I’m not familiar with the app.