Judge Anthony J. Trenga, an appointee of George W. Bush, has temporarily blocked President Trump’s move to clean house in the intelligence community—specifically targeting agents involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have compromised national security in favor of leftist ideology.
This ruling comes after a group of anonymous intelligence officers, who had been temporarily reassigned to roles implementing controversial Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, names ODNI, the CIA, and their respective heads—Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—as defendants.
The plaintiffs, identified as “John Does 1-6” and “Jane Does 1-5,” claim they are being unfairly targeted simply for their prior assignments to DEIA programs.
However, conservatives see it differently. President Trump’s Executive Order 14151, signed on his first day back in office, decisively dismantled DEIA offices across the federal government, branding them “illegal and immoral.”
The order made it clear that radical left-wing hiring practices, which prioritized identity over merit, had no place in a serious government, especially in agencies tasked with protecting American national security.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim they were placed on administrative leave “without cause” and fear imminent termination.
They argue that the ODNI and CIA’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the First and Fifth Amendments, essentially accusing the Trump administration of purging government agencies based on assumed political beliefs.
However, the reality is that these DEIA assignments were nothing more than a bureaucratic extension of the far-left’s identity politics agenda, which has infiltrated every corner of government—including national security agencies.
Many of these so-called intelligence officers were not dedicated to protecting America’s security but were instead focused on enforcing radical leftist policies that prioritized “equity” over competence.
However, on Tuesday, Judge Anthony J. Trenga granted an administrative stay, ensuring that the plaintiffs will remain on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until the court rules further on the matter.
The judge also set a timeline for legal proceedings, requiring the government to submit its response by February 20 and allowing plaintiffs to reply by February 21. A full hearing on the TRO is scheduled for Monday, February 24, 2025.
More from far-left Politico:
A lawyer for the intelligence officials, all of whom were identified by pseudonyms in the lawsuit, welcomed the ruling.
“We’re very gratified by the judge deciding to do an administrative stay for a week, basically, while the government answered some of his questions,” attorney Kevin Carroll said.
Carroll said his clients began getting messages over the weekend to report Tuesday to a visitor center with their official identification, a request he said typically signals a looming dismissal. He said the employees received notices specifying Trump’s executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs as the reason.
“They say this is to comply with the executive order, which is really dumb because the executive order talks about ending DEI functions. It doesn’t say you have to fire DEI personnel. And nobody is hired into the CIA to be a DEI guy. It’s a rotational duty, like you have in the Army or anywhere else,” Carroll said. “So, they can simply just reassign these people back to being an analyst or scientist or case officer, whatever they did before instead of firing them. It’s arbitrary and capricious.”
[…]
“The paperwork from the CIA is relying solely on this subsection of the National Security Act, which says the director can do whatever he wants, which the Supreme Court has made clear applies only to national security,” the attorney said.
The post Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s Firing of CIA Officers Involved in DEI Programs appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.