Judge dings Trump admin for violating court order over access to hidden spending plans in win for transparency groups
Source: Law & Crime
Jan 30th, 2026, 5:58 pm
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to stop hiding information about agency spending in a matter-of-fact rebuke of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
In the underlying litigation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Protect Democracy Project sued over access to the "Public Apportionment Database," which was taken offline at OMB Director Russ Vought's behest in March 2025.
In July 2025, Senior U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, a Bill Clinton appointee, ordered the Trump administration to "stop violating the law" and restore access. In ruling for the plaintiffs, the court found the removal of the database violated the two prior year appropriations acts and certain provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
By August 2025, the database itself was back online. But, the plaintiffs quickly complained, several dozen documents in the database contain references to an "undisclosed spend plan," according to an eight-page motion to enforce filed last September.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/must-be-made-publicly-available-judge-dings-trump-admin-for-violating-court-order-over-access-to-hidden-spending-plans-in-win-for-transparency-groups/
Full headline: 'Must be made publicly available': Judge dings Trump admin for violating court order over access to hidden spending plans in win for transparency groups
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.279262/gov.uscourts.dcd.279262.46.0.pdf
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143499548
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143514969