The Paper Trail: February 7, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Announcements

To kick off Valentines Day, the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds will hold a pop-up tabling event in the Longworth Dunkin’ Donuts on February 13 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Stop by and meet the whole team, pick up their latest guides, and get your questions answered on how your office can work effectively with whistleblowers from the public or private sectors. Complimentary donuts and coffee will be available!

Top stories for February 7, 2025

Trump brazenly defies laws in escalating executive power grab: More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed challenging moves by the Trump administration. The administration has sidelined the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, which is supposed to review proposed executive orders and substantive proclamations for form and legality. (Charlie Savage, New York Times)

Court’s pause of federal worker “buyout” gives Trump administration more time to get more applications: As of last night, more than 60,000 had accepted the offer, far short of the administration’s target of 5% to 10% of the federal workforce. (Holly Otterbein and Nick Niedzwiadek, Politico)

🔎 See Also: Thousands more recent federal hires receive warnings of their easy-to-fire status (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

Elon Musk’s DOGE teams raise vetting, ethics concerns: The backgrounds and affiliations of DOGE members who have access to the government’s data systems are fueling concerns that the data could be misused to benefit Elon Musk’s financial interests. There are also questions about how thoroughly DOGE members have been vetted. (Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight)

🔎 See Also: Elon Musk’s demolition crew (ProPublica)

🔎 See Also: DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts (Katherine Long, Wall Street Journal)

🔎 See Also: DOGE teen owns “Tesla.Sexy LLC” and worked at startup that has hired convicted hackers (Andy Greenberg, David Gilbert, and Lily Hay Newman, Wired)

Musk’s DOGE agents access sensitive personnel data, alarming security officials: DOGE was given access to an OPM repository of sensitive information about employees of most federal agencies — including addresses, demographic profiles, salary details, and disciplinary histories. DOGE can install and modify software on the system and alter internal documentation of its own activities. (Isaac Stanley-Becker et al., Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: DOJ agrees to temporarily block DOGE from Treasury records (Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica)

🔎 See Also: DOGE enters NOAA, accesses IT systems and removes the top HR official (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

Elon Musk shielded by ethics loophole as Trump “special government employee”: Elon Musk’s status as a special government employee exempts him from ethics disclosure rules. Presidents from both parties have used special government employees, who were never intended to be powerful people with the ear of the president and vast administrative influence. (Haisten Willis, Washington Examiner)

🔎 See Also: White House says Musk will police his own conflicts of interest (Dana Hull, Bloomberg)

🔎 See Also: Musk trying to disappear USAID as it probes its deal with his company (Veronica Riccobene, The Lever)

CIA sends White House an unclassified email with names of some employees: The CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the agency over the last two years — a move that risked the names leaking to adversaries. (David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)

Federal health workers terrified after “DEI” website publishes list of “targets”: A website called “DEI Watch List” published the photos, names, and information of federal health agency workers, labeling them as “targets” for working on DEI initiatives, donating to Democrats, or using pronouns in their bios. The site is managed by the American Accountability Foundation, which last year created an online list of federal workers it suspected of being anti-Trump. (Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Erika Edwards, NBC News)

Israel-Hamas War

Trump proposes U.S. takeover of Gaza and says all Palestinians should leave: President Trump declared on Tuesday that the U.S. should seize control of the Gaza Strip and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population. Trump vowed to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” (Michael D. Shear, Peter Baker, and Isabel Kershner, New York Times)

Insurrection

The Capitol rioters are free — but Ed Martin’s crusade against Jan. 6 prosecutors is just getting started: Ed Martin, the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, last week fired around 30 government attorneys who worked on January 6 cases. Martin was a “Stop the Steal” organizer who has called for cash reparations for January 6 defendants and jail time for those responsible for bringing the charges. (Amanda Moore, The Intercept)

Rubio taps Pete Marocco to run USAID, despite his Jan. 6 past: Pete Marocco, the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, was tapped to run USAID and launch an internal review of its work. Marocco, who held a variety of positions in the first Trump administration, left “a bitter trail” at the agencies where he formerly worked and was identified as being among the crowd that illegally entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Steve Benen, MSNBC)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

VA leaders working with DOGE but say veterans’ personal info is secure: The VA confirmed that it has one employee from DOGE “who is specifically focused on identifying wasteful contracts, improving VA operations and strengthening management of the department’s IT projects,” and that the employee “will not have access to veterans’ or VA beneficiaries’ data.” The VA has placed on administrative leave about 60 employees focused on DEI programming. (Leo Shane III, Military Times)

Navy pauses sexual-assault prevention and response training: The Navy’s sexual assault prevention and response (SAPR) program is still functioning, and victims are still encouraged to report crimes and seek assistance, but annual sexual assault prevention training was halted this week with no timeline for resuming. The military services have been reviewing their training, policies, and websites to make sure they’re in accordance with Trump’s executive orders, but a lack of clear guidance has led to uneven implementation across commands. (Audrey Decker, Defense One)

Trump revokes security detail for former Defense Secretary Mark Esper: Within hours of his inauguration, President Trump began to pull security details for nearly a half-dozen people who had served in his first term and are under threat from Iran. (Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)

The ships that take Marines to war are in really, really bad shape: A recent report revealed that the Navy’s amphibious ships are in bad shape and raised major concerns about challenges for the Marine Corps in fulfilling critical national security missions. (Hope Seck, Sandboxx)

Business and Finance

What to know about changes in a trade loophole for online goods: President Trump’s elimination of a rule that allowed low-cost goods to enter the U.S. without facing taxes set off confusion and chaos within the Postal Service and will shift the landscape for online sales. (Danielle Kaye, New York Times)

President Trump’s executive orders leave imprint on the Fed: President Trump has so far restrained himself from trying to meddle with the Federal Reserve on matters related to monetary policy, but some of his executive orders are leaving an imprint on the central bank. (Colby Smith, New York Times)

Tech

Starlinks are falling: 120 satellites crash from space in January 2025: As many as 120 Starlink satellites operated by SpaceX crashed back to Earth in January 2025, raising concerns among scientists and environmentalists about atmospheric pollution. (Republic)

Infrastructure

Transportation Department suspends EV charger program: Five billion dollars set to flow to fast EV chargers along highways is at risk from the FHA’s order to suspend the program. The order could also strike a major blow to the industry. (Shannon Osaka and Jake Spring, Washington Post)

Health Care

Abandoned in the middle of clinical trials, because of a Trump order: The executive order freezing foreign aid and the administration’s moves to dismantle USAID are leaving thousands of people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear. (Stephanie Nolen, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Marco Rubio’s USAID “humanitarian waiver” isn’t helping restart lifesaving programs (Matt Sledge, The Intercept)

CDC posts, then deletes, data on bird flu spread between cats and people: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a CDC report but then abruptly vanished. The report was part of the CDC’s prestigious Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which, until two weeks ago, had regularly published every week. (Apoorva Mandavilli and Emily Anthes, New York Times)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ DOJ’s focus on immigration will hurt crime-fighting efforts

→ Justice Department sues Illinois and Chicago over immigration enforcement

→ Migrants are deported to India on U.S. military plane

→ Federal judge blocks Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship

→ El Salvador’s president offers to accept criminals from U.S. for a fee

→ ICE is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations

Other News:

→ White House cracks down on news subscriptions

→ Trump administration evicts former Coast Guard leader from her house with 3 hours notice

→ Lockheed Martin spends $30 million to settle F-35 overcharge dispute

Because It’s Friday

“Accidental” FBI chief builds a following as agency’s defender: Brian “Drizz” Driscoll was accidentally appointed as acting director and has defended the bureau from mass firings, inspiring memes and satirical clips. (Adam Goldman, New York Times)

Upcoming Events

📌 The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. Wednesday, February 12, 10:00 a.m., 2247 Rayburn House Office Building.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - Disaster Contracting: Opportunities Exist for FEMA to Improve Oversight. GAO-25-107136 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Pierre Gentin - General Counsel, Department of Commerce
• Neil Jacobs - Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Jeffrey Kessler - Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry and Security
• Paul Roberti - Administrator, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
• Arielle Roth - Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration