Summary

The Trump administration abruptly halted USAID’s foreign aid funding and restructured the agency, provoking alarm among experienced staff and legal experts.

Political appointees, assisted by Elon Musk’s engineers, seized control of IT systems, imposed swift stop-work orders, and placed thousands of workers on leave.

Experts warned these actions likely violated multiple federal laws, including the Privacy Act and the Impoundment Control Act, raising serious constitutional concerns.

Federal worker groups have filed lawsuits and a judge’s injunction halted layoffs, while congressional inquiries and legal challenges look to restore due process.

    • chaosCruiser
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      3 months ago

      Just the executive orders given during the first day sparked a bunch of lawsuits. What can you expect from the rest. Judges have their work cut out for them for years to come.

      • @[email protected]
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        83 months ago

        Well, in a functioning government this would be the point at which Congress impeaches and convicts Trump for breaking the law. We saw how well that happened last time Trump was in office and kept breaking the law.

  • @[email protected]
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    83 months ago

    “Felon may have broken the law” is already a tiring headline, and it’s not even been a fucking month

  • Snot Flickerman
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    3 months ago

    “may have”

    So tired of this pussy fucking bullshit from the media.

    We’re literally on the verge of a Constitutional Crisis because of the law-breaking.

    Fucking grow a pair ProPublica.

    • @[email protected]
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      273 months ago

      You’re almost always in the thread and on message in the comments before I click on it.

      Keep it up friend. You’re doing good work.

    • @[email protected]
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      113 months ago

      Laws only exist if they can be enforced. The president has just about any power if the court says so, or if the court says no and the president says “fuck you make me”.

    • @[email protected]
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      23 months ago

      If he hasn’t been convicted, then he hasn’t factually broken the law. If he hasn’t factually broken the law, then saying he has is considered defamation and opens ProPublica up to lawsuits, and unfortunately, they would lose, since that would be textbook defamation.

      That’s why everything like this gets wrapped in things like “allegedly” or “may have” because it allows them to report the facts of what happened and the laws in question without making that final link, which is something only the courts can do.

    • @[email protected]
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      343 months ago

      repeatedly and habitually. they break more laws more often than junior dips a finger into his pocket.

  • @[email protected]
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    43 months ago

    Most probably. USAID distributes money and goods according to the budget, which is set by the legislative branch. The executive may not mess with that.

  • @[email protected]
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    193 months ago

    The trump administration breaking the law isn’t news. Them actually getting in trouble for it, now THAT would be news.

    • chaosCruiser
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      53 months ago

      People who are involved in the process of making new laws, are also the ones breaking them. There might be a slight conflict of interest, don’t you think?

      Nah, it’s probably fine. What could go wrong.

  • @[email protected]
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    533 months ago

    34-time convicted felon, rapist, con artist, and insurrectionist broke the law?!

    Well that certainly wasn’t on my 2025 bingo ca-- oh wait, no there it is, I always forget about the free one in the middle.