A lawsuit by a coalition of labor unions Thursday prompted the Labor Division to agree to not launch any delicate financial and privateness information to DOGE, the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity led by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. Musk’s group has already gained entry to delicate recordsdata and pc methods throughout different key businesses as a part of a push to restructure a lot of the federal authorities. “There are enormous issues with what Elon Musk and his group are doing to entry probably the most vital private information that this nation owns,” says Rob Shriver, senior adviser to the accountability group Democracy Ahead, which filed the lawsuit over Labor Division information, and a former appearing director of the Workplace of Personnel Administration. Authorized challenges have additionally reversed the Trump administration’s government order to freeze trillions in federal funding, delayed a buyout provide despatched to many of the federal workforce to encourage mass resignations, and not less than partially blocked Musk from accessing the Treasury Division’s cost system. We additionally converse with Public Citizen’s Robert Weissman, who calls Musk’s actions “an authoritarian rampage by means of the federal government … designed to entry data, surveil the nation, destroy the establishments of presidency and advance company pursuits with out restraint.”
It is a rush transcript. Copy will not be in its ultimate kind.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Struggle and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We glance now at a few of the new authorized hurdles going through Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, because it tries to dismantle and restructure, because it says, a number of federal businesses.
On Thursday, a lawsuit by a coalition of labor unions prompted the Labor Division to agree to not launch any delicate financial and privateness information to DOGE. The company holds delicate information probably together with employee complaints in opposition to Musk and his firms. The lawsuit argues, quote, ”DOGE seeks to realize entry to delicate methods earlier than courts can cease them, dismantle businesses earlier than Congress can assert its prerogatives within the federal finances, and intimidate and threaten staff who stand of their manner … The outcomes have already been catastrophic. DOGE has seized management of a few of the most carefully-protected data methods housed on the Treasury Division, taken maintain of all delicate personnel data on the Workplace of Personnel Administration, and dismantled a whole company inside every week.” A full listening to on the case is ready for at this time.
This comes as the same lawsuit filed this week resulted in one other settlement Thursday to cease DOGE from accessing thousands and thousands of delicate private and monetary data from the Treasury Division. The case was filed by Public Citizen on behalf of the American Federation of Authorities Workers, the Service Workers Worldwide Union and the Alliance for Retired Individuals.
For extra, we’re joined in by two friends. In Washington, D.C., Robert Weissman is with us, co-president of Public Citizen, which has additionally sued to cease the Trump administration’s assault on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, USAID. And in Arlington, Virginia, Rob Shriver is with us, senior adviser to Democracy Ahead, which filed the lawsuit over Labor Division information on behalf of a coalition of labor unions. Till days in the past, he was the appearing director of the Workplace of Personnel Administration underneath the Biden administration.
We welcome you each to Democracy Now! Rob Shriver, let’s start with you. Is DOGE, is Elon Musk committing crimes right here?
ROB SHRIVER: So, Amy, that is still to be seen. However I feel what we all know proper now’s there are enormous issues with what Elon Musk and his group are doing to entry probably the most vital, private information that this nation owns. There are processes in place that defend that information from public disclosure, that guarantee that it’s used appropriately and to not have interaction in retribution or acquire aggressive benefits. And I feel the criticism that Democracy Ahead filed on behalf of 4 million employees lays out in nice element the danger and the hurt that’s already occurring.
AMY GOODMAN: Speak in regards to the data that’s in danger right here and the younger males, 19, what, to 26, who used to work for SpaceX or X or Tesla, Elon Musk’s non-public firms, who’ve entry to this data.
ROB SHRIVER: Yeah, I feel that latter half is extremely alarming. We don’t know if these people are staff of the federal government. We don’t know in the event that they’ve gone by means of any vetting course of. You recognize, the background investigation course of is not only some technical HR factor that individuals get aggravated about. It’s meant to find out whether or not persons are topic to blackmail or international brokers or of such questionable character that they will’t be trusted with delicate information. So, to bypass that course of, which — if that occurred, can be an enormous downside. We have to know. The American individuals have to know what has occurred to get these individuals entry.
After which, the sorts of information that you just’re speaking about embody personally identifiable data, private well being data, information about employees’ compensation claims, information about Elon Musk’s opponents, and a few of the information that our economic system depends upon to be reported out objectively and with out political interference.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you able to inform us what the company that you just have been accountable for, the Workplace of Personnel Administration — I imply, it sounds so bureaucratic, it’s exhausting for individuals to determine with it — what the knowledge you held there may be and why it’s so threatening? And may you discuss, for instance, about Medicaid?
ROB SHRIVER: Positive. So, OPM is actually the HR company of the federal authorities. It points HR coverage. It manages and processes retirements for federal staff. It additionally manages the biggest group medical insurance program on the planet, the Federal Worker Well being Advantages Program.
So, in an effort to perform all of these features — which, by the best way, are largely nonpartisan, proper? Like, more often than not OPM spends, like, simply processing these retirement purposes, managing medical insurance — largely nonpartisan. However to hold out these missions, it has information on thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of Individuals, not simply the two.3 million energetic federal staff, but additionally the thousands and thousands extra retirees, the 8 million people who find themselves enrolled within the Federal Worker Well being Advantages Program, which incorporates federal staff, their relations, a few of the highest-ranking officers in authorities, together with members of Congress.
So, all of that information is housed at OPM and topic to very strict guidelines and controls for who will get to entry it, for what goal. There are immense cybersecurity protections, as a result of the nation could keep in mind a big information breach in 2015 involving OPM that uncovered thousands and thousands of data of federal staff and relations. So, because of that, there are intensive protections in place to stop one thing like that from occurring once more.
AMY GOODMAN: I wish to go to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who was with Congressmembers Paul Tonko and Yassamin Ansari, turned away from EPA headquarters. That is Senator Markey talking at a information convention outdoors the EPA after they have been denied entry.
SEN. ED MARKEY: We simply went in and requested for a gathering with the DOGE representatives. And we have been denied. We have been turned away. And we simply had a few easy questions for them. Are they nonetheless freezing EPA funding for all the clear air and clear water packages in our nation? Are they blocking the essential work, which the EPA does each day, to guard the individuals in our nation, the households of our nation? And they didn’t give us the solutions, in the identical manner that they don’t seem to be giving the solutions to each different program in our nation — Medicaid, Medicare, the Inexpensive Care Act, all of these well being and environmental packages which are so central to the well-being of each household in our nation. Trump and Elon Musk and their unqualified, unelected, undesirable henchmen need to have the ability to perform their assaults in your surroundings, your rights, your pals, your neighbors, underneath the quilt of darkness. So we’re outdoors asking them to step out into the sunshine of day.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Massachusetts Senator Markey, standing outdoors the EPA. He’s stopped from going inside businesses like this. I imply, we’re speaking about Treasury Division, as properly, senators and congressmembers, police stopping them from shifting in. However the DOGE children — proper? — 19, 20, 21, 22, they’re shifting in. How a lot data they’re getting isn’t clear. I wish to convey Rob Weissman into this dialog. Robert Weissman is head of Public Citizen. Are you able to speak about this, what is going on proper now, and what your lawsuit is all about?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Yeah. Thanks, Amy.
I feel the broad story is that Elon Musk and his acolytes are on an authoritarian rampage by means of the federal government. It’s solely kind of ideological. It might be serving his enterprise pursuits, we don’t know. But it surely’s designed to entry data, surveil the nation, destroy the establishments of presidency and advance company pursuits with out restraint. I feel, for Elon Musk, it’s truthful to say he views this all as a type of enjoyable online game he’s going to play for a short while, then stroll away. It’s been reported that the White Home doesn’t really know what Musk is doing intimately, however is okay. They’ve a type of believable deniability. When issues go actually fallacious, then they pull it again in and inform him, “Don’t do this once more.”
So, we’re actually in a harmful time. We’re going to need to rely, at first, on the courts to restrain this. That’s what the Democracy Ahead lawsuit is about. It’s what we’ve accomplished on the Division of Treasury, and we have been capable of get an order yesterday restraining DOGE from accessing data on the Treasury Division, though nonetheless permitting two Musk acolytes contained in the Treasury Division to get entry to data, now down to 1 due to the resignation you referenced earlier.
This data is individuals’s tax information. It’s the federal government’s cost information. So it’s nearly everybody within the nation, private data, revenue and extra, entry to details about authorities payees. And it’s not simply that they wish to see the knowledge. It’s clear and been reported that their need is to have the ability to reduce off funds to individuals and organizations and firms, contractors, no matter, which are due cost by means of congressionally appropriated cash, by means of contractually obligated cash, simply to chop it off. That’s their model of effectivity. It has nothing to do with effectivity. It’s all about authoritarian imposition. And by the best way, ultimately, individuals who lose cash are going to be paid. So the concept they’re saving cash is a lie. They’re going to be costing cash, even within the direct sense, past the large hurt they’re going to battle on this nation and around the globe.
AMY GOODMAN: Rob Weissman, Public Citizen not too long ago filed a criticism with the Division of Justice urging an examination into whether or not FBI director nominee Kash Patel ought to have registered underneath FARA, the International Brokers Registration Act. Clarify why.
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Effectively, in the middle of looking for a nomination for a place like director of the FBI, people are required to make every kind of disclosures. That’s thought of by the Senate as a part of the affirmation course of. Kash Patel didn’t speak in confidence to the Senate in time for his consideration, for his affirmation hearings, that he had been paid by the federal government of Qatar to do work — we don’t know precisely what. That data has now come out. There’s a query first why it wasn’t disclosed, and that the Senate ought to be capable to ask him, “What have been you doing?” and contemplate whether or not it needs to substantiate as head of the FBI somebody who was a paid agent for a international nation. There’s additionally the nontrivial authorized matter that you just’re required to register once you work for international governments, which Kash Patel didn’t do.
Now, an additional attention-grabbing twist in that is, the brand new legal professional normal, Pam Bondi, additionally labored for Qatar. She did comply with the necessities and register underneath the International Brokers Registration Act. However in her first day in workplace, yesterday, she issued a memo during which she mentioned, “You recognize what? We’re not going to implement that regulation very a lot. By and enormous, you may violate the regulation, except you’re engaged in espionage on behalf of a international nation.” So, the brand new legal professional normal, who can be overseeing Kash Patel if he have been confirmed, has already preannounced that she gained’t actually examine this declare in opposition to Kash Patel, which is a critical one as a result of it’s plain he didn’t file the registration necessities.
AMY GOODMAN: Talking of Pam Bondi, the brand new legal professional normal, inside her first days in workplace, she has accomplished all the pieces from ordering investigations into sanctuary cities to reinstating the federal loss of life penalty. Does she have that energy?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Effectively, the legal professional normal has numerous energy and numerous discretionary decision-making authority. It’s very probably she’s going to overstep it. Nobody needs to be stunned. She acquired the job as a result of she was an ardent Donald Trump supporter. She maintained that by means of her affirmation listening to. She shouldn’t have been confirmed. She’s multiply conflicted with firms that the Division of Justice is or can be investigating. She proved herself unqualified by her devotion to Donald Trump and her protection of the coup on January 6.
However we’re right here the place we’re, and she or he’s going to make use of each the discretionary — reputable discretionary authority of the legal professional normal and illegitimate authority of the legal professional normal. Certainly one of her memos yesterday principally knowledgeable the Justice Division workforce, “Hey, your job is to work for Donald Trump, and we anticipate you to be loyal to the president’s mission and priorities.” Effectively, that’s not the job of the Division of Justice. The Division of Justice isn’t the president’s lawyer. The Division of Justice are the individuals’s legal professionals and required to uphold the legal guidelines of this nation. And it’s going to be a tricky time within the subsequent few years. We’re going to see how vindictive she is. However the best-case situation isn’t excellent in any respect.
AMY GOODMAN: Public Citizen has filed a criticism with the Division of Justice and the Workplace of Authorities Ethics round President Trump, what, on January seventeenth, days earlier than he was inaugurated, releasing an official Trump meme coin, which values skyrocketed to over $15 billion. What are you able to say about this?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Yeah, in a distinct time, this is able to be headline tales for a pair weeks, however there’s an excessive amount of craziness and hazard happening. So, Trump launched this meme a pair days earlier than the inauguration. He’s promoted it on Twitter and on Reality Social since he was inaugurated, saying, “Purchase the meme.” Whenever you get the meme, you’re primarily getting nothing. You pay what you pay. And Trump says it’s not an funding, it’s simply help for an concept. So, successfully, you’re making a present to Donald Trump. You’ll be able to attempt to resell that reward if you need, however you’re principally making a present to Donald Trump. That’s unlawful for each federal worker apart from the president, who can settle for items. However the president isn’t permitted to solicit items. So we now have argued that the concept he’s asking individuals to purchase this meme, which is worthless factor, not a safety, as he says, constitutes the solicitation of a present, and we’ve requested for an investigation.
AMY GOODMAN: Lastly, I wish to return to Rob Shriver in regards to the ways in courtroom and on the streets proper now. Tens of hundreds of federal employees have accepted the e-mail, the resignation, resigning and being paid for the following eight months. To start with, will they essentially get that? Now, that’s been stopped. The deadline was presupposed to be final night time at midnight, and a choose mentioned no. However speak about what this implies. You symbolize so many unions. And likewise, is the federal workforce, one of the vital numerous within the nation, is that additionally why it’s being focused?
ROB SHRIVER: Effectively, I feel that’s a great query. Actually, we now have labored over a number of administrations to make the federal workforce mirror the variety of America, by means of reputable ways like ensuring we’re recruiting broadly for expertise.
I feel it’s actually essential that Democracy Ahead went to courtroom and acquired this extension on the deadline, as a result of the fork-in-the-road provide is unprecedented. It’s not per the authorized approaches that an administration can use to do precisely this. Why haven’t they only supplied federal staff early retirement throughout the board? Why haven’t they gone by means of the congressionally approved separation program that’s carried out by OPM laws?
After which, along with that, there are budgetary questions, proper? We’re on a seamless decision by means of March 14th. What’s to cease the Republican-controlled Congress, in enacting a brand new finances, from saying, “We’re not going underneath this settlement to pay individuals to not their job”?
After which, lastly, the American individuals have to ask: What’s the plan for delivering important authorities companies? What’s the plan if a bunch of nationwide safety employees take this deal? Or if a whole workplace in a county in Iowa of USDA employees takes that deal, who’s going to assist these farmers?
AMY GOODMAN: I wish to thanks each for being with us, Rob Shriver, senior adviser to Democracy Ahead, former appearing director of OPM — that’s the Workplace of Personnel Administration — and Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen.
==================================================
AI GLOBAL INSURANCE UPDATES AND INFORMATION
AIGLOBALINSURANCE.COM
SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES!