Steve's Place<p>The sweet crude of absolute power flowing through Republican veins into their blackened, traitorous hearts must be intoxicating. Elon agrees.</p><p>82. On January 24, 2025, Tom Krause, a tech executive apparently working with or<br>behalf of DOGE, asked Trump appointee and then-acting Treasury Secretary David A. Lebryk, to<br>halt certain foreign aid payments through BFS systems because Mr. Musk believed they violated<br>certain executive orders.25 On information and belief, at the time Mr. Krause made this request, he<br>was not a Treasury employee but rather was affiliated with DOGE.<br>83. DOGE was not seeking to stop the payments because they were going to an<br>improper payee. Rather, DOGE sought to stop the payments for policy reasons.26<br>84. Mr. Lebryk stated that he did not believe “we have the legal authority to stop an<br>authorized payment certified by an agency” and that the less legally risky route would be for the<br>State Department to stop and evaluate the propriety of the payments.27 Mr. Krause responded by 21<br>threatening Mr. Lebryk, telling him he could face legal risk himself if he did not comply with<br>DOGE.<br>85. Shortly after Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury Secretary on January 27,<br>2025, Mr. Lebryk was placed on administrative leave and ultimately resigned after 30 years of<br>federal service.28 Beginning February 2, 2025, Secretary Bessent granted DOGE personnel full<br>access to BFS payment systems, which contain sensitive Treasury data, including Social Security<br>and Medicare customer payment data as well as Plaintiff States’ bank account and related financial<br>information.</p><p><a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463.2.0.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">storage.courtlistener.com/reca</span><span class="invisible">p/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463.2.0.pdf</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/coup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>coup</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Republicans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Republicans</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Elon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Elon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/ElonMusk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ElonMusk</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/DOGE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DOGE</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/AbsolutePower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AbsolutePower</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Treasury" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Treasury</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Law" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Law</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/tags/Lawsuit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Lawsuit</span></a></p>