President Donald Trump’s age of revenge has begun. The next wave of legal opposition is on its way.
Trump friends are purging the Justice Department and FBI of perceived foes at breakneck pace, effectively paralyzing adversaries. Elon Musk, armed by Trump, has assembled a gang of followers to take over the government spending machinery run by the US Treasury. Trump’s interim selection to handle federal prosecutions in Washington says anybody who opposes Musk’s efforts may be violating “numerous laws.”
The White House is proposing to block nearly all federal funding, which NGOs say is already disrupting services for the most vulnerable Americans. With practically little notice, the government disbanded the agency in charge of overseas aid and gave millions of federal employees a buyout with unclear legal authority. Trump sacked several of the internal watchdogs — inspectors general — who were supposed to scrutinize these choices.
Congressional Democrats are perplexed by the pace, reacting to issues from three news cycles ago as fresh ones emerge in real time. And congressional Republicans have either remained silent or praised Trump for sending shockwaves through the federal administration.
All eyes are now focused on federal courts, where challenges to these rulings are gradually taking shape. Two judges have already prevented the White House from enacting its all-encompassing spending cap. And litigation in federal courts might be the final line of defense for anyone attempting to thwart Trump’s ambitions to rebuild the government.
“Nobody has challenged across the landscape the way this president has,” said Stan Brand, a former top House counsel who has fought some of Washington’s most high-profile legal disputes over the last 40 years. “We’ve had arguments over [spending authority]. We’ve had disagreements about inspectors general long before Trump. We’ve fought over foreign aid. However, this one is more in-depth and appears to be programmed. All of these will be questioned in some way.
Judges are ready for a barrage of challenges to a growing number of extraordinary actions done by a president who appears willing to push the bounds of his constitutional authority. The result of these lawsuits will, in some ways, define Trump’s presidency. In certain cases, however, chaos is intentional. Trump’s backers claim he is following through on his campaign vow to shake up Washington regardless of the legal consequences.
“Federal employees around the country are surely feeling Trump’s orders as body blows, as he likely intended,” said Daniel Richman, a lawyer and former counsel to FBI leadership. “But once the initial shock of his extraordinary power claims wears off, I doubt they will all be intimidated.” Rather, they will be the source of lawsuit, which all but the most ardent Trump supporters will take seriously.
Nowhere has the crisis environment been more intense than at the Justice Department and FBI, where a succession of staff changes have left employees outraged, disillusioned, and fearful of retaliation for pursuing criminal charges against Trump or his followers.
“I have never seen the level of retribution and anger expressed towards career prosecutors and staff who are basically doing their job,” said Gene Rossi, a former prosecutor who recently defended a notable Jan. 6 defendant linked to the far-right Oath Keepers. “The intensity of revenge is astonishing. What is amusing is that President Trump mentioned witch hunts. What we are currently witnessing is his far worse response to the witch hunt.”
Thousands more FBI employee terminations for their involvement in criminal cases on January 6 may be on the way, even as pockets of opposition arise. A group of national security attorneys and friends has offered free legal aid to FBI officers targeted by the new leadership for their involvement in Jan. 6 cases, and litigation to block mass terminations may be inevitable.
Many Washington legal veterans are particularly concerned and bewildered by Musk’s enigmatic position in efforts to make significant, sudden, and ill-explained changes to the federal government’s operations. He frequently uses his social media platform, X, to label some government-funded projects as “criminal” and enjoys, for example, throwing USAID, the organization in charge of administering overseas aid programs, through a “wood chipper.” Those allegations of illegality have been accompanied by a chorus of Trump’s MAGA friends describing the agency as a hotbed of leftist causes, implying that the agency drew Trump’s ire for political reasons.
Musk has dispatched a team of pals to seize control of computer systems at Treasury and the Office of Personnel Management, which are in charge of distributing approved cash and monitoring the entire government workforce. It is unknown what obligations they have. Following reports that some of those incursions have been greeted with opposition, Washington, D.C.’s interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin — a conservative cultural warrior and notorious conspiracy theorist regarding the Jan. 6 assault — promised to use his authority to safeguard Musk’s efforts.
Martin hinted that “threats, confrontations or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws.” Martin concluded his letter to Musk — which Musk promptly acknowledged — by cautioning him to be aware of subversive groups in government.