Destruction of world's largest humanitarian programme was done without formal authority or official oversight, former USAID employees claim

Elon Musk, leader of the Trump administration's now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency, must sit for depositions along with senior State Department officials over their role in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Pointing to findings that Musk had made the decision to break up USAID – one of the world's largest humanitarian programs – despite lacking formal authority or official approval – District Judge Theodore Chuang wrote that there was "no alternative" than for Musk and other officials to provide testimony regarding their decision-making process.

The ruling represents a win for a group of anonymous former USAID employees who are suing Musk, DOGE and State Department officials over the closure.

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[–] 162 points 9 months ago (15 children)

If he ever faces justice for the hundreds of thousands needlessly dead because of him I hope it a fine based on net worth like the Nordic countries do, and then death.

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  • [+] 72 points 9 months ago (14 children)
  • [+] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)
  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago* (3 children)

    It's the best justice system money can buy out*

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I've been saying for decades now that america has the best education/healthcare/justice that money can buy. I don't say that about government because it hasn't been the best for decades even if it has been bought for decades.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah but that value is based almost exclusively on stock in volatile companies like Tesla. Kill Tesla and that disappears basically overnight.

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  • [+] 6 points 9 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    that is until he recieves order from putin/aipac to sabotage starlinks during critical moments, like elections and plan of attack for ukraine.

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  • [+] -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)
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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Yes but that concentration of wealth is not only an asset but a threat.

    He’s rich. Obscenely rich. The kind of rich where you can buy other rich people. He has no peers.

    And if you take him out, that money, power, influence, it’s all up for grabs. The power vacuum is intoxicating to a certain subset of humanity who, funny thing, he’s been propping up.

    I’m concerned about the leopards. They are going to die of morbid obesity.

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  • [+] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    That would be a dream come true. AI agents are not legal entities with the right to own or inherit property. Therefore, all of his stuff has no legal owner. By the principle of escheat, it now belongs to the State.

    Sadly, I doubt Elon's lawyers are quite this dumb.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    AI agents are not legal entities with the right to own or inherit property.

    Maybe not yet. But we've decided that corporations are people already. Maybe he's incorporated his AI girlfriend somewhere....

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  • [–] 58 points 9 months ago (21 children)

    This is so annoying. If he wasn't allowed to or able to or supposed to, how did it happen???

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  • [–] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    The constitution was written by people who assumed the positions they were creating would always be occupied by good-faith actors. They weren't.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other" - John Adams

    https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102

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  • [–] 28 points 9 months ago* (14 children)

    USAID was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy via executive order under the authority of the Congress-passed Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. While authorized by this legislation, it was later formally codified as an independent agency by Congress through the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998.

    Sadly, a LOT of people stayed home and did not vote for Kamala Harris, or they voted 3rd party, and Trump was elected to run the Executive branch. The Trump administration decided the executive branch could choose which laws they executed. The opposition was immediate and lawsuits were filed, but the gears of justice grind slowly, so here we are in 2026 with depositions finally starting.

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  • [+] -26 points 9 months ago (12 children)
  • [–] 45 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    The alternative is a literal Nazi posting racist cartoon depicting Obama as monkey, not to mention a few murders here and there, and a promise to deploy armed Gestapo to watch the election. But worry not. You prople did very well not woting for a weak candidate.

    Alas, you have a strong one now.

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  • [–] 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Average sentiment around Mark Carney representing the liberals before the election in Canada was similar. A new name on a party the people were fed up. Then the opposition started spouting the same shit Trump was and their conservative leader managed to lose what could have been an easy landslide victory if he had kept his mouth shut. Now our "weak" candidate actually seems to be making an impact in places that had been stagnating in Canada, like diversifying trade and allegedly tackling the housing crisis.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    This is a very good point. I was reading "Extreme Ownership" and one of the point they were making: a 5-star manager makes 5-star team and vise versa. I called it a BS back when I was reading. But afterwards I got a new manager that threw the amazing well-oiled high-performing team in a dumpster in 6 weeks. Half the people quit within a month (it took me longer because of the vacation lol)

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    I worked at a coffee shop and the manager refused to take orders or lift a finger. It had a low retention rate for workers and that managers treatment of my schedule made me quit. I went to a restaurant, the manager greeted me, took my drink order and I saw him scoop some dishes to bring back to the kitchen. While chatting with the server she said the management there helped make it her favourite place to work so far. It really is as simple as remembering you are part of the team. You have to delegate and help out, you can't do just one.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago

    The real problem is that "will you go get a decent candidate."

    There's rot in the dnc for sure, but if you are not actively trying to fix it then why expect someone else to find your perfect candidate?

    You need to be active locally. Precinct, county, district, state, national. If anyone misbehaves, you can 'lobby' against them at your precinct level and sway a county vote, etc, until they are not re elected.

    These are those superdelegates we talked about so much in 2016.

    Don't wait for a better candidate, make one.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago

    I’ll blame them again. You’re a petulant child who thinks that if they yell loudly, they will get what they want. The world is not perfect, and if it ever becomes perfect, it won’t be overnight. We’re not going from Trump to a Democratic Socialist. It doesn’t matter how much we ask for it. Unfortunately, progress is slow.

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  • [–] 52 points 9 months ago

    I thought that said deported.

    My evening is ruined.

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  • [–] 52 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    We need less "depose" and more "dispose".

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    [–] 42 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Spoiler Alert: It was a grift at the expense of the American tax payer. Like literally everything the Republican party does.

    Elect criminals, get robbed.

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  • [–] 35 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Ten's of thousands of people have already died at the hands of Elon Musk destroying USAID. It was all part of their plan. Then Elon got hundreds of billions in welfare from trump for helping do the dirty work.

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  • [–] 29 points 9 months ago* (13 children)

    Freeze his assets. He needs to fund the rebuilding of our national security infrastructure

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    Not just freeze them but nationalize them along with all his companies (except for Twatter and Grok, put them out of their misery) and, as @Gammelfisch@lemmy.world said, throw him into prison. But before we do that, we have to "get rid" of Der Orange Führer.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    all his companies are slowly becoming one - spacex is taking over xa"i" which already owns shitter

    maybe starlink is somewhere in the middle or just separately owned by spacex

    means you can't get one without all, but there is a bright side of shitter and the elon regurgitater can just be shut off once it's taken over

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    For what? All that damage and it's extremely unlikely he committed a crime. He held no official cabinet position and had no official authority. Probably didn't even do much of anything himself. US isn't capable of holding a billionaire accountable.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    He’s committed countless crimes. Unfortunately he was able to shutdown several investigations into him and his companies from various agencies during the Dodge fiasco. He basically Elizabeth Holmes on a massive scale. I agree that it doesn’t seem we have laws for the wealthy but people are getting pissed so I have some hope m.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    What crimes? Name them. And how they would be proven beyond a reasonable doubt? Remember, all he has to do is create reasonable doubt. These guys have staff who will literally do nothing much make sure that doubt exists. Name one specific order he gave ar DOGE that is verifiable - one order that he definitely gave, that a specific person definitely followed. You can't do it. Prosecutors won't be able to either.

    If anything there will be more of a case against government workers for following instructions from people who had no legal authority to give them.

    This is why granting someone power completely outside of legal bounds - outside of any laws that govern the cabinet - is a really really bad idea.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Look dude I get it you really like Elon but he’s a criminal and deserves to go to jail or hang for the thousands of people who died due to his USAID cuts. Dodge shut down several investigations into him and his company’s crimes. I’m done with this conversation and you

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    Look dude I get it you really like Elon

    0/10 reading comprehension.

    but he’s a criminal and deserves to go to jail or hang for the thousands of people who died due to his USAID cuts.

    Agreed.

    I’m done with this conversation and you

    Cool but what I was saying is that you'll never pin any of this on him because he managed to do all the damage he did without committing a crime. The fact that this was possible is itself the problem . You haven't even engaged with what the actual problem is, you're just reacting emotionally.

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  • [–] 28 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    Don't you get deported when you're not born in the US and are convicted of a felony? Just saying.

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    He's a naturalized US citizen. But citizenship can be stripped, especially if someone has dual citizenship. And Musk still has Canadian citizenship...

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  • [+] -11 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    I can see how the idea of stripping people of color of their citizenship is so easy to sell to Americans when their first reaction is to try to do it to anyone that they don't like.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    You just don't want your fascist back.

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  • [+] -7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Of course we don't want him near us.

    Nice try deflecting from your American instinct to deport your political enemies though.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Oh deportation isn't the route I'd prefer. Too humanitarian for these fuckers. Just giving Canada an opportunity to fix an issue in which they are complicit instead of just saying nope you touched it last.

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  • [–] -5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Personally I think that we should strap him to one of his rockets and send him to the moon.

    I'm just trying to get you to see how messed up it is that you are using the same rhetoric about stripping citizenship of your political enemies, while the "good Americans" pretend to be outraged that the Republicans want to do the same to their political enemies.

    Are there any Americans at all who want to follow due process and have a functioning justice system?

    Trump and co seem like a symptom of a sickness that is affecting you all.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    It's not the same though to be fair. Elon's citizenship is invalid. Based on an overstayed, and misused student visa. Citizenship can be, and often is revoked if found later that they abused, misused, or falsified their information during the immigration process. He came in on a student visa, and then worked instead.

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  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago

    Christ, can they seize all of his assets?

    Also, will this be recorded and shown to the public?

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  • [+] 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 26 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Oh no. A deposition. Questions will be asked. He's in big trouble.

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  • [–] 34 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    Maybe trial him for mass murder as this costed an estimate of 600.000 to 1.200.000 people their lives.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago* (3 children)

    I could be wrong here, but are you sure that's not a projected outcome due to the fallout vs present has happened. I don't doubt it will, just not sure it has.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    The numbers I remembered were somewhat wrong. But here's an article about it.

    The projections are it could cost 9.4 million people there lives by 2030 according to this article and 22 million by 2030 according to this article.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Thanks.

    Also I didnt know this part at all

    The slashing of US foreign assistance was followed by cuts by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and other developed nations, which are set to take effect this year and next year, compounding the impact.

    You'd have hoped the international community would have also stepped up to help fill in the gaps, not that they would ever have been able to fully fill it. That's the opposite.

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  • Well in the U.S. a life comes out to about 10,000,000 in court on average. So if he's caused 10,000 to die, so far, charge him 100,000,000,000. And make it payable to the people he caused harm with, with no ability to declare bankruptcy, you know... Like he supports for every 17/18 year old signing contracts to go to college.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    For just a moment I thought it said 'deported'. For just that moment, I felt elation like I haven't known in years.

    I'm still hopeful.

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    [+] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    At worst? Ever so slightly stoke voter outrage at this whole fiasco and increase awareness of the oligarch class.

    At best? Fines, jail time, reinstatement of disbanded agencies.

    Nothing in the at best camp is likely to happen, but making a spectacle out of it and potentially getting someone to admit something they don't mean to will likely help nudge some voters. Even if they're mostly left leaning getting more people to turn out will help.

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago

    It should be remembered that when AOC made her first appearance with Congress, it was to question Michael Cohen during his testimony, before going to prison. She rapidfired questions at him, and he rapidfired answers right back, and that testimony formed the foundation of Leticia James' successful prosecution of Trump and verdict of guilty on 34 felonies. So real consequences can come from these Congressional dog & pony shows.

    Furthermore, they will be under oath, so if they say anything that contradicts anything else, it's perjury. And this testimony will be the official record, so if they ever make a statement that contradicts it, it's perjury again.

    Also, they're going to try to avoid testifying, so we may get the opportunity to imprison them when they refuse to honor the subpoenas.

    And when they do testify, we get to use their lies against them in campaigns, etc., and they get to put their virtuosic stupidity, ignorance, and evil on display for the entire world.

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  • [–] 17 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    DEPORT THIS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT!

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    (X) to Doubt

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    When every human counts, not because of border, not because of claimed inheritance, not because of any physical feature.................and if wishes were horses.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago

    world's largest?

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