In full tensions between Donald Trump and the chief magistrate of the US Supreme Court, a judge has thrown more firewood on Tuesday to the bonfire of tensions between the Executive and Judicial Power: a federal magistrate of Maryland has determined that … Elon Musk and his Government Efficiency Department (Doge) probably violated the constitution and separation of powers in its closure of USAID, the US development aid agency.
The dismantling of this federal agency has been one of the most controversial episodes in Musk’s frantic efforts, Trump’s right hand in his second mandate, to reduce the size of the public sector and cut superfluous expenses.
The decision was made by the judge Theodore Chuangafter more than two dozens of officials and contracted personnel from Usaid filed a lawsuit against the closure of the agency and filed a request for precautionary measures until the justice between at the bottom of the matter.
In a 68 -page letter, the judge determines that Musk and Doge violated the clause on appointments and The separation of powers that imposes the constitution of the USA. Therefore, provisionally, it imposes on Musk already Doge that they restore salary payments to the contracted officials of USAID, as well as their access to the agency’s email and its electronic systems.
The judge also orders Musk already Doge to stop making any measure or decision related to the closure of the USAID, including processes to fire or place their employees, the closure of buildings and offices or the elimination of the contents of its websites.
According to the magistrate, Musk and Doge cannot make any decision without the “express authorization” of a USAID authority with legal power for those decisions.
Until now, Musk’s role at the head of this crusade to cut the public sector has been ambivalent. Trump does not hide that he has given the richest man in the world that authority to do and undo in federal agencies. But, in the judicial level, government lawyers portray him as an advisor to the president without formal authority to make government decisions.
Judge Chuang made clear in his decision, however that it is the South African billionaire who is behind those efforts. “The evidences presented favor the conclusion that, unlike the position of the defense that Musk acted only as an advisor, Musk made decisions to close the headquarters and the USAID website even though he did not have the authority to take them,” wrote the magistrate.
This decision comes in the midst of a cascade of clashes between the Trump administration and justice, which has been put to the aggressive and frantic executive activity, with an extensive interpretation of the presidential powers, of the New York billionaire since it arrived at the White House in January.
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