Day 2
January 21, 2025
6 incidents
- Serious Rights Violation Corruption & Self-Dealing
Treasury official Lebryk denied access, overruled, and resigns
Treasury official David Lebryk denies DOGE access to sensitive payment systems. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent overrules the decision, and Lebryk resigns rather than comply with the directive to grant access.
From: DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases
- Serious Rights Violation Deportation & Immigration
Haitian families stranded in Tijuana
Reports emerge of Haitian families who traveled to Tijuana specifically for CBP One appointments now stranded in limbo, with no alternative pathway and no means to return to their countries of origin.
From: CBP One App Shutdown: 30,000 Asylum Appointments Cancelled, 270,000 Stranded
- Major Abuse of Power Civil Rights
OPM issues 72-hour compliance directive
OPM directs all agencies to report lists of DEIA offices, employees, and contractors by noon on January 23. Agencies must develop written plans for reduction-in-force actions targeting DEI employees. Federal DEI workers across government are immediately placed on administrative leave.
From: DOGE-Directed Elimination of Federal DEI Programs and Mass Firings of DEI Workers
- Major Abuse of Power Corruption & Self-Dealing
Marko Elez begins work at Treasury
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, begins working as a Treasury employee with access to payment systems. He is later discovered to have been mistakenly granted 'write' access to a sensitive payments database — the ability to alter payment records in a system handling $6 trillion annually.
From: DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System
- Major Abuse of Power Rule of Law
Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders released from prison
Stewart Rhodes is released from federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland shortly after midnight, and Enrique Tarrio is released from prison later that day. Both had been serving sentences of 18 and 22 years respectively for seditious conspiracy.
From: Blanket Clemency for January 6 Defendants, Including Violent Offenders
- Major Abuse of Power Rule of Law
DOJ begins dismissing pending January 6 cases
The Department of Justice moves to dismiss all pending January 6 cases in accordance with the clemency proclamation, ending prosecutions of defendants whose cases had not yet gone to trial.
From: Blanket Clemency for January 6 Defendants, Including Violent Offenders