The Lawfare Campaign to Stop DOGE is Even More Corrupt Than You Think

On Feb. 14, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas—a Biden donor and career-long left-wing activist—extended a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department records. 

This came despite D.C. District Judge Randolph Moss denying a restraining order on DOGE for Department of Education records. Even the judge who tried Trump’s sham January 6 case, Tanya Chutkan, declined to place a restraining order on DOGE for seven other agencies. So, what’s Vargas’ game?

(RELATED: Biden-Harris DOJ Threatens Elon Musk With Lawfare For Something Democrats Do All The Time)

Lawfare 2.0 for Trump 2.0

This is a clear pattern: Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election by a landslide, so they’re weaponizing the courts to slow or stop Trump from fulfilling his mandate from the people. This, at least, is hardly new; recall that during Trump’s first term, liberal judges issued more nationwide injunctions against him than all courts issued against America’s first 40 presidents combined.

President Donald Trump created DOGE to modernize federal software and cut back on government waste. Despite the howls of the radical Left, DOGE does not have the authority to shut down anything on its own. Instead, DOGE finds out about wasteful spending, brings it to the public’s attention, and makes recommendations that Trump can act on or ignore. DOGE head Elon Musk said he “actually checked with [Trump] a few times” when he recommended the President close the corrupt and wasteful U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

While the Left was too slow to stop DOGE exposing USAID, they’re catching up.

On Feb. 7, 19 Democrat attorneys general—led by New York’s Letitia James—filed a lawsuit in the ultra-blue Southern District of New York to stop DOGE from investigating Treasury Department spending, and got a win. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, an Obama nominee, issued a temporary restraining order on DOGE accessing Treasury records from the Bureau of Fiscal Services until Judge Vargas could hear the case on Feb. 14. 

Trump’s Justice Department remarked in its appeal to Vargas that Engelmayer’s ruling was so broad it could prevent Treasury Sec. Scott Bessant from doing his job, grossly violating the Constitution’s separation of powers. Trump called the ruling “a disgrace,” adding, “When a president can’t look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don’t have a country anymore.”  

Three days after the Democrat attorneys general filed that Feb. 7 lawsuit, Vargas upheld Engelmayer’s restraining order—albeit narrowing the order to specify that it didn’t apply to Bessent. 

The next day, on Feb. 14, Vargas said she would rule on the preliminary injunction requested by the leftist attorneys general “shortly, but it will not be today.”

It’s been close to a week and Vargas has still not issued her ruling, keeping the “temporary” restraining order in place—and hampering DOGE from doing its job at the Treasury Department.

Protecting Democrats, Not Democracy

The lack of a united judicial front in these rulings against the Trump administration likely complicates things for Vargas politically. In 2016, she donated to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In 2020, she donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and gave the maximum individual contribution to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

In early 2024, far-left Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recommended her to Biden for the Southern District of New York. 

Since 2019, Vargas’ husband, Shivashish Chatterjee, has contributed $9,400 to Gillibrand and given $1,000 to Gillibrand’s super PAC “Off the Sidelines.”

Vargas is also is listed as having donated thousands of dollars to the left-wing American Constitutional Society (ACS), a leftist litigation group that recommends its members give biased treatment to minority groups against white Americans, and advocates lawmakers and judges interpret the Constitution loosely based on historical circumstances instead of how it’s written. It was also one of the top groups that recently tried to take down conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by smearing him over unfounded allegations of ethics violations.

Globalist billionaire George Soros and the Tides Foundation heavily fund ACS, and the group associates with Democracy Alliance, a network of top left-wing funders who meet annually to coordinate their political spending.

Before becoming Obama’s first Attorney General in 2009, former ACS board member Eric Holder—of Operation Fast and Furious infamy—told an ACS convention that America would soon be “run by progressives.” He encouraged young lawyers—which Vargas was at the time—to get involved with the network.

Flash forward to 2024, and ACS President and former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold said, “All public officials need to be prepared to fight against the extremism that will come when Trump returns to office.”

Vargas’ Senate committee hearing passed last May on a 11–10 party-line vote. Democrats rushed her confirmation to clear a backlog of Biden’s judicial nominees before his administration and the Democrats’ narrow Senate majority ended. The Senate invoked cloture by a 52–43 vote, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) voting for her. 

Gillibrand praised her Senate confirmation, writing Vargas had “worked diligently to protect and strengthen the civil rights of the LGBTQ community.” 

Vargas was a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association when she clerked under liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor when Sotomayor was a Circuit Court judge. 

Like her DOGE ruling, Vargas developed a record as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York of defending what Trump has called the “Deep State.” She defended the CIA in a lawsuit against Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests over alleged torture techniques. She also defended the agency against FOIA requests by the New York Times over its training program in Syria. 

Trump Fights Back

Trump has said he is willing to get Congressional approval if the courts block his efforts at government transparency. “If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it’s fine with me.” he said, adding that he thought such a vote would be “very easy.”  Recent polling shows support for DOGE is rising, and Trump is more popular than ever.

Despite cries of authoritarianism from the Left and the few dozen remaining pseudo-Right Never Trumpers, Trumpo does abide by judicial rulings. Trump suggests, however, “maybe we have to look at the judges.” Impeachment is always an option.

Partisan judges like Vargas can only hope to win a painful delay for bureaucrats who think they form a fourth branch of government. With or without congressional approval, DOGE is inevitable.

(READ MORE: Americans Want a Government Free of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse)