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With Elon Musk having stepped aside and DOGE fading away, Vought is probably more powerful now than ever. We want to know more: What’s his role with DOGE? What other agencies has he influenced? 8/

A news headline that reads: "Musk is gone. But DOGE staffers are still trying to cut through agencies."

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Vought even took down a gov’t website — mandated by law — that showed how OMB was apportioning the money that Congress had appropriated for federal agencies. The website was a response to Trump’s freezing of Ukraine aid in 2019. This was so brazen even congressional Republicans pushed back. 7/

A headline of a New York Times story that reads: "Bipartisan House and Senate leaders urge White House to restore spending website"

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Vought endorses the concept of impoundment — that the president has the power to block spending money appropriated by Congress. William Rehnquist — the future Supreme Court chief justice — said impoundment power was “supported by neither reason nor precedent.” A top Reagan official agreed: 6/

An excerpt of a news story that describes how lawyers in Republican administrations concluded that there is no constitutional power to impound federal funds, as Russ Vought argues.

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Vought believes the U.S. is a “post-constitutional regime.” He hails Trump as a leader sent by God to be a “radical constitutionalist” akin to James Madison. He envisions vast powers for the executive that would undermine Congress’s constitutional authority to appropriate funds. 5/

An excerpt of a ProPublica story that reads: “We have in Donald Trump a man who is so uniquely positioned to serve this role, a man whose own interests perfectly align with the interests of the country,” Vought said. “He has seen what it has done to him, and he has seen what they are trying to do to the country.

“That,” he added, “is nothing more than a gift of God.”

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Vought’s job is director of the Office of Management and Budget. OMB is a Cabinet-level agency, but it’s not a household name like DOJ. Yet OMB is powerful. Often described as the “central nervous system” of the federal gov’t. 4/ www.whitehouse.gov/omb/

Alt text: Whitehouse.gov screenshot that reads: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) serves the President of the United States in overseeing the implementation of his vision across the Executive Branch. Specifically, OMB’s mission is to assist the President in meeting his policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities.

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The video we uncovered of Vought saying “We want to put them in trauma” has gone viral — online and off. Senators used the word “trauma” more than 20 times at Vought’s confirmation hearing to be Trump’s budget and personnel director. 3/

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Last fall, @propublica.org and @documented.net broke the story that Russell Vought, Trump’s current budget chief, said he planned to put career civil servants “in trauma.” Now, we're investigating the full extent of Vought's impact on the federal government. We need your help… 🧵 1/

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Here is the Army-branded platform for this weekend’s military parade. It’s on Constitution Ave, just south of the Ellipse — a notable spot for all you J6 obsessives out there.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Metal barricades have popped up all over downtown DC and the proximity of the White House. Reminds me a bit of what DC felt like in the weeks after the January 6 riots.

Photo of the Smithsonian African-American Museum, surrounded by metal security barricades

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Appreciate the reference (below) to @propublica.org’s coverage of Russ Vought in @hcrichardson.bsky.social’s newsletter today. I have more Vought reporting in the works. I’d love to hear from anyone with information about Vought, OMB, and DOGE. Contact info in my bio.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Vought now begins his opening statement... Under Biden, "every agency became a tool of the left." Those days are now over under President Trump, he says. 6/

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Leonard Leo's response to Pres. Trump calling him a "sleazebag":

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8/ Martin's confirmation was in trouble after Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said this week that he would not support it. Tillis cited Martin’s support for Jan. 6th defendants as his rationale for opposing Martin. Washington Post:

An excerpt of a Washington Post story that reads:

Tillis said he was opposing Martin based on his advocacy for those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump pardoned them on his first day back in office and Martin has punished prosecutors in the office who worked on those cases.

“I’m thinking about future January 6ths,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve got to make it very clear: You come into this Capitol, you’re going to get fined, you’re going to go to prison, you made a bad mistake. No rationalization.”

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6/ Sen. Durbin cited @propublica.org's “troubling report” in his remarks on the Senate floor. He described Martin’s “outrageous effort” to intimidate a judge. He condemned Martin’s friendship with an alleged Nazi sympathizer and J6 defendant.

A photo of Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate floor speaking out against Ed Martin's nomination to be US Attorney for the District of Columbia

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5/ All told, Martin’s actions have led to more than $600,000 in legal settlements or judgments against Martin or his employers. Martin did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent by ProPublica.

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4/ As we reported, a judge found Martin in civil contempt in 2020 for his behavior in the case. The judge cited Martin’s “willful disregard” of a court’s order. A jury later found Martin liable for defaming the daughter of the anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly.

An excerpt of ProPublica's Ed Martin story that reads:

His actions have led to more than $600,000 in legal settlements or judgments against Martin or his employers in a handful of cases. In the Eagle Forum lawsuit, another judge found him in civil contempt, citing his “willful disregard” of a court order, and a jury found him liable for defamation and false light against Cori.

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3/ My colleague @jeremykohler.bsky.social and I broke the story of how Ed Martin ghostwrote attacks on a sitting judge … in a case where Martin was the defendant. What he did was a clear violation of ethical norms and professional rules, experts said.

An excerpt of ProPublica's Ed Martin story that reads:

Legal experts told ProPublica that Martin’s conduct in the Eagle Forum case was a clear violation of ethical norms and professional rules. Martin’s behavior, they said, was especially egregious because he was both a defendant in the case and a licensed attorney.

Martin appeared to be “deliberately interfering with a judicial proceeding with the intent to undermine the integrity of the outcome,” said Scott Cummings, a professor of legal ethics at UCLA School of Law. “That’s not OK.”

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1/ President Trump just announced he’s dropping Ed Martin as his pick for the U.S. Attorney for DC after a GOP senator opposed Martin’s confirmation. The decision comes immediately after a top Senate Democrat strongly condemned the pick — and cited ProPublica…🧵

Headline of an Associated Press story that says "Trump says he'll pull the nomination of Ed Martin, who defended Jan. 6 rioters, for DC US Attorney"

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

WATCH: Sen. Dick Durbin is on the Senate floor, speaking out in opposition to Republican activist and lawyer Ed Martin's nomination to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Live here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...

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Judge Boasberg's noon deadline today has and come gone, and it appears DOJ has not filed its response in J.G.G. v. Trump, the El Salvador deportation case. The latest entry in the docket is from yesterday (see below). It also looks like a DOJ lawyer has dropped off the case.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

And now, a break in our regularly scheduled programming (cough cough) to share this delightful and made-me-cackle paragraph written by the always excellent @heatherhav.bsky.social

A paragraph that reads: “Man, it was so great to be horrible, back when I was young and pretty! In fact, I want to urge every young and youngish woman out there to take advantage of their hotness for as long as possible, because it’s fun and it’s good for you and everyone should literally be punished by how amazing you look. You need to grind their faces into the shag carpet of what an unbearable smoke show you are. Because so many complete dolts are going to make you pay for so many stupid reasons moving forward — for being interesting, for having a brain in your skull, for being bored by them because they are objectively boring, for growing into a mature adult with firm boundaries and clear expectations. So smear your raw hotness all over their dumb-dog faces for as long as you possibly can.”

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Per the White House, Pres. Trump held his "first foreign leader call" today with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Reminder: MBS ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, per a CIA assessment. Trump's family also has business ties w/ Saudis.

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This is about as strong of a rebuke as a judge in a J6 case could give, given the circumstances. Perhaps it's not surprising considering that Howell spent hundreds if not thousands of hours presiding over J6 cases since 2021. Pretty striking. 6/end

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Howell writes that she can't refuse the DOJ's decision to dismiss this case in which two J6 defendants had already admitted criminal conduct *under oath.* But she refuses DOJ's request to dismiss the case WITH prejudice. That would bar future prosecution for these crimes. 5/

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Howell notes that usually when the gov't moves to dismiss a case like this, it provides “a statement of reasons and underlying factual basis." In this case, Howell writes, the only basis for the dismissal is Trump's EO. And Howell finds that EO, well, seriously lacking: 4/

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Judge Howell calls the J6 rioters "poor losers" whose preferred candidate, Trump, lost in 2020. And yet those same losers "are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity." 3/

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Trump's J6 EO says it "ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” Howell doesn't buy it. She writes there was no nat'l injustice nor any election-changing fraud. 2/

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Jake Sherman of @punchbowlnews.bsky.social reports on a memo sent by the Trump White House to lawmakers outlining Pres. Trump's initial plans. Read it below.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

The first lawsuit was filed by @publiccitizen.bsky.social, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the American Federation of Government Employees, also challenging Pres. Trump's DOGE and its compliance with federal rules. Read it here: citizen.org/wp-content/u...

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Second (by my count) lawsuit filed by advocacy groups challenging Dept. of Government Efficiency. This one is led by @DemocracyFwd and several other groups. Lawsuit here: democracyforward.org/wp-content/u...

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

~Personal news~ Thrilled to announce that I'm writing a book for @grandcentralpub.bsky.social! I cover politics by day, but I'm a true-crime junkie at heart. My new book is a wild journey into one of the great crime epics of the 20th century — and the American kingpin at the heart of it.

A book-deal announcement for Andy Kroll's forthcoming nonfiction book about criminal kingpin Michael George Thevis.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Congrats to my pal Jorge on opening day of his new DC bakery and sandwich spot, Bread Bite. Corner of 14th St & Corcoran. Locally owned and run. The American dream in action. Go check it out, fellow DCers!

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14/ Vought and the Center for Renewing America did not respond to ProPublica’s repeated requests for comment. The Trump campaign and Arizona’s AG did respond to our reporting at the time. We included their comments in the story. You can read them both below.

A story excerpt that reads:

"Since the Fall of 2023, President Trump’s campaign made it clear that only President Trump and the campaign, and NOT any other organization or former staff, represent policies for the second term,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. She did not directly address Vought’s statements.

Karoline Leavitt, his campaign’s national press secretary, added there have been no discussions on who would serve in a second Trump administration.

In addition to running his think tank, Vought was the policy director of the Republican National Committee’s official platform committee ahead of the nominating convention. He’s also an architect of Project 2025, the controversial coalition effort mapping out how a second Trump administration can quickly eliminate obstacles to rolling out a hard-right policy agenda.

A story excerpt that reads:

Brnovich wrote in an email to ProPublica that he recalled multiple discussions with Cuccinelli about border security. But he added that “the invasion opinion was the result of a formal request from a member of the Arizona legislature. And I can assure you it was drafted and written by hard working attorneys (including myself) in our office.”

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13/ But perhaps the most alarming rhetorical flourish of Vought’s was when he compared the 2024 elections to two specific dates in time: 1776 and 1860. Moments in our history when the country was facing all-out war. “God put us here for such a time as this,” he said.

A story excerpt that reads:

“We are here in the year of 2024, a year that very well [could] — and I believe it will — rival 1776 and 1860 for the complexity and the uncertainty of the forces arrayed against us,” Vought told his audience, referring to years when the colonies declared independence from Britain and the first state seceded over President Abraham Lincoln’s election. “God put us here for such a time as this.”

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12/ He said in the private speeches that the US has become “too secular” and “too globalist,” and needed to “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” He also made a chilling analogy as he echoed Trump’s 2020 stolen-election claims, which are, of course, unproven.

A story excerpt that reads:

“In the aftermath of the election, we had all these people going around saying, ‘Well, I don’t see any evidence of voter fraud. The media’s not giving enough [of] a compelling case,’” he said. “Well, that compelling case has emerged. But does a Christian in China ask and come away saying, ‘You know, there’s no persecution, because I haven’t read about it in the state regime press?’ No, they don’t.”

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11/ Interestingly, he blamed both liberals and conservatives for this. In particular, he blasted the Federalist Society, co-chaired by Leonard Leo, and “originalist judges” for upholding this supposedly illegitimate “regime.”

A story excerpt that reads:

Yet in his 2024 speech, Vought accused the Federalist Society and “originalist judges” of being a part of the problem, perpetuating the “post-constitutional structure” that Vought lamented by not ruling more aggressively to weaken or dismantle independent regulatory agencies that Vought and his allies view as illegitimate or unconstitutional.

It was “like being in a contract quietly revoked two decades ago, in which one party didn’t tell the other,” he said. “At some point, reality needs to set in. Instead, we have the vaunted so-called Federalist Society and originalist judges acting as a Praetorian Guard for this post-constitutional structure.”

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9/ Vought endorsed a plan to invoke war powers to deploy military forces to the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he helped seed this idea with Arizona’s AG in 2022. “We said, ‘Look, you can write your own opinion, but here’s a draft opinion of what this should look like,’” he said.

A story excerpt that reads:

Vought also revealed the extent of the Center for Renewing America’s role in whipping up right-wing panic ahead of the 2022 midterms over an increase in asylum-seekers crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In February 2022, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich released a legal opinion claiming the state was under “invasion” by violent cartels and could invoke war powers to deploy National Guard troops to its southern border. The legally dubious “invasion” theory became a potent Republican talking point.

Vought said in the 2023 speech that he and Cuccinelli, the former top Homeland Security official for Trump, personally lobbied Brnovich on the effort. “We said, ‘Look, you can write your own opinion, but here’s a draft opinion of what this should look like,’” Vought said.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

6/ Vought says his team drafted legal rationales for executive actions like using the Insurrection Act. “We want to be able to shut down the riots & not have the legal community or the defense community come in and say, ‘That’s an inappropriate use of what you’re trying to do.’”

A story excerpt that reads:

Vought laid out how his think tank is crafting the legal rationale for invoking the Insurrection Act, a law that gives the president broad power to use the military for domestic law enforcement. The Washington Post previously reported the issue was at the top of the Center for Renewing America’s priorities.

“We want to be able to shut down the riots and not have the legal community or the defense community come in and say, ‘That’s an inappropriate use of what you’re trying to do,’” he said. Vought held up the summer 2020 unrest following George Floyd’s murder as an example of when Trump ought to have had the ability to deploy the armed forces but was stymied.

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1/ Hey, Bluesky community! Thanks for taking an interest in what we do at @ProPublica.org. I’ve spent this year reporting on the people and policies to expect in Trump 2.0 — from Project 2025 and attacks on civil servants to MAGA's plan to “eradicate” all mentions of climate change. A quick 🧵...

Bio card for Andy Kroll, ProPublica reporter.

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Rep. Matt Gaetz — Trump's pick for AG — asked the first Trump White House “for a very, very broad pardon," according to former Trump WH lawyer Eric Herschmann. Herschmann's response: "I said Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad.” From J6 Committee report:

Many of these details were also corroborated by other sources. President Personnel Director Johnny McEntee confirmed that he was personally asked for a pardon by Representative Matt Gaetz (R–FL).699 Eric Herschmann recalled that Representative Gaetz “. . . asked for a very, very broad pardon.. . . And I said Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad.” 700 When asked about reporting that Representatives Mo Brooks and Andy Biggs also requested pardons, Herschmann did not reject either possibility out of hand, instead answering: “It’s possible that Representative Brooks or Biggs, but I don’t remember.” 701 The National Archives produced to the Select Committee an email from Representative Mo Brooks to the President’s executive assistant stating that “President Trump asked me to send you this letter” and “. . . pursuant to a request from Matt Gaetz” that recommended blanket Presidential pardons to every Member of Congress who objected to the electoral college votes on January 6th.702

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Andy Kroll @andykroll.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

President-elect Trump just announced he plans to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to be his Attorney General. (Statement below.) That’s gonna be a confirmation battle, to say the least.

Donald Trump's statement nominating Matt Gaetz to be US Attorney General.

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25/ And when we asked Leo about arranging the meeting for the Singer-affiliated donors with Justice Thomas at the Supreme Court, he sent this response: (Singer declined to comment. Thomas didn't respond.)

Leo told ProPublica that while not all of the alliance’s donors give money to his causes: “They are thought leaders who should know more about the Constitution and the rule of law. I was happy to arrange for them to hear about these topics from one of the best teachers on that I know, Clarence Thomas.” Singer declined to comment. The Supreme Court didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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24/ We also asked Leo about his fundraising talents, and whether his relationships with judges, justices, and other influential figures helped him raise huge amounts of money. Here was our question and his response:

ProPublica question: "You’ve also become one of the most prolific fundraisers in the conservative movement. According to our reporting, part of your success stems from your unique relationships with judges and justices, and those relationships have enhanced your reputation and helped you raise money and recruit talent for your various projects. Do you see it that way? If not, why not?"

Leo answer: “To the extent that I have been successful at raising funds, it has been because the ideas I have tried to advance are compelling and because I have always placed a premium on driving results through highly effective talent pipelines and infrastructure.”

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23/ In response to the main thrust of our story, Leo told us: “The work I have done in the legal culture has been shaped by the conviction that respecting and enforcing limits on the power of the state are essential to advancing the dignity and worth of all individuals.”

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20/ And he has the money to fuel these growing ambitions: In 2021, the Chicago businessman Barre Seid put his fortune — $1.6 billion — into a trust. Then Seid gave Leo control over that money. The guy nicknamed "Moneybags Kid" in high school is now a mega-donor of his own.

A photo of Leonard Leo from his high school yearbook, which lists his nickname as "Moneybags Kid."

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18/ Top of his list: He wants to expand the strategy he used at the Federalist Society to shape… …all of *American* society. He sees a nation plagued with ills: “wokism” in education, “one-sided” journalism, misguided ideas like environmental, social and governance policies.

Having reshaped the courts, Leo now has grander ambitions. Today, he sees a nation plagued with ills: “wokism” in education, “one-sided” journalism, and ideas like environmental, social and governance, or ESG, policies sweeping corporate America. A member of the Roman Catholic Church, he intends to wage a broader cultural war against a “progressive Ku Klux Klan” and “vile and immoral current-day barbarians, secularists and bigots” who demonize people of faith and move society further from its “natural order.”

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16/ He's also not infallible. He's suffered defeats. In Missouri, he and his team's efforts to defeat Breckenridge and sink the so-called "Missouri Plan" failed. He's lost in Wisconsin, too. But he's learned from the defeats as much as the victories, people told us:

Kelly’s loss was Leo’s loss. But it was also, paradoxically, a win. Conservatives were acting as if judgeships were a prize for a political party, rather than an independent branch of government — what Geske calls “super-legislators.” And thanks to Leo, those super-legislators could be especially hard-line.

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