katelyn polantz thank you for that explanation. our thanks to alayna treene as well at the white house. appreciate both your reporting on this. sara. >> all right, let's discuss this and more with defense attorney and former federal prosecutor shan wu. okay. shan got a lot of questions here. federal judge grilling the trump justice department, as you just heard, reported there by our katelyn polantz. and they simply cannot come up with an answer as to exactly what doge is. if they cannot answer that question to a judge, then how will any of these cases go forward? >> the answer. >> is, in my. >> opinion. >> in almost. >> all of these cases. >> they should be frozen. i mean, they can. >> proceed as a matter of a lawsuit. but at the first step, as we saw in one of the cases with the federal teachers union, the american federation of teachers, there's a tro imposed just to freeze this. and a big part of why those trolls are being granted and why i think they should be granted across the board, is because these answers aren't very clea

katelyn polantz. >> yeah. pamela, it was only a matter of time until this and ended up in court before a judge. and what we saw on sunday is a new lawsuit or an updated lawsuit in federal court in northern california, where unions are saying, hey, this seems unlawful. the reason that they are in court, this is just one of many, many lawsuits challenging the firing of federal workers. and they're trying to argue that the way that it's being done just isn't legal. now, a lot of these cases have fallen flat, at least in their early stages. they haven't been able to convince judges to put a stop on trump's ability to fire people across the federal government. but now we do have this particular h.r. at opengov email as part of one of the arguments. so in this case, in northern california, the unions are writing to the judge asking for emergency intervention, and they are saying that nowhere in the office of personnel management history has there ever been a policy, a program, a rule, a regulation that required fede

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. what more are you learning, caitlin? >> well, pamela, the supreme. >> court. is teed. up to have their say in this. >> case at any time now. it's been. fully briefed in the court, and it is the first case and a major one to challenge donald trump and his executive authority since he retook the presidency. so in this case, it's about him firing someone who had a bit of independence given to him by congress to be a independent authority to look at, look at watchdog complaints, whistleblower complaints from federal government workers. the person that trump fired, his name is hampton dellinger. he was reinstated into the office by the courts about a week and a half ago, and since then, the justice department, trump's justice department, has pushed this through the appeals courts very, very fast. so now they have to convince the supreme court of two things. one, that it's time to take this case, even if it's premature to get to the supreme court. they're saying that the supreme court needs to step in about this and make sure

katelyn polantz as always, thanks so much. well coming up. we're minutes away from the senate vote to confirm tulsi gabbard as the nation's top intelligence official. will she have the votes? we'll watch. >> erin burnett out front tonight at seven on cnn. >> still congested? >> nope. uh oh. >> mucinex 2 in 1. saline nasal spray spray. >> goodbye. >> mucinex 2 in 1. saline nasal spray with a gentle mist and innovative power jet spray. goodbye to congestion. its comeback season. >> oh, what a good time we will. have you can make it happen again voltaren for long lasting arthritis pain relief. >> want a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine? it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean with listerine. feel the whoa. >> can nariva support your brain health? >> mary. janet. hey. >> edie. no! fraser. frank. frank! fred, how are you? fred. >> support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember. remember nariva. >> before

katelyn polantz thanks for the reporting, kate. >> coming up for us all happening right now.se secretary pete hegseth is in europe, the first member of the new trump administration to be meeting with nato. the topic ukraine. his message everyone other than the u.s. needs to do more. and in a sure sign that spring is coming. not here yet, that's for darn sure. baseball's just around the corner cooked books. >> corporate fat cats. >> swindling socialites. >> doped up. >> cyclists. >> and yes. >> more crooked politicians. >> i have a feeling we won't. >> be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper, march 9th on cnn. >> so i. >> got. >> you a little. >> something. >> warming for him, tingling for her. >> should we, uh. >> experience the thrill of bringing them together? say more than i love you. say i want you with me, yours and mine. >> here's to getting. >> better with age. >> here's to beating these two. >> every thursday. >> help fuel today with boost high protein. >> complete nutrition. >> you need. and the flavor you lo

all right, katelyn polantz, thank you very much for that, sara. >> all right. donald trump applauds an apple promise a $500 billion investment in the united states. are tariffs truly leading to more jobs though. and the impact of trump's pentagon purge with senior military leaders out concerns are growing over readiness and future leadership. could these moves actually impact national security? we will discuss ahead. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also kind of not the news. >> we don't. >> fact check him. we don't care. >> man. why sell the information on this show so terrible? >> have i got news for you? saturday at nine on cnn. >> at morgan stanley old school. hard work meets bold new thinking to help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly work with you to make them real. >> get in on. buy one foot long. get one free right now in the subway app. that's right. buy one foot long sub. get another free deals this good usually come with a two year contract. grab the deal online or in app with code bogo only for a limited time. >> josÉ raÚl

katelyn polantz, great reporting. thank you very much, sara. >> all right. james eisenman is now joining us. he previously worked on that little known merit systems protection board that caitlin was just mentioning. he is with me to talk through this. what? what power does this board have to reinstate employees? >> well. >> good morning. thanks for having me. the merit systems. >> protection board has the power. to hear. appeals from federal employees, federal whistleblowers who have been fired or retaliated against. and the board has the authority through either its. >> administrative judges. >> or the board itself. to reinstate federal employees who have been wrongly fired. >> how does the board work? >> so the board works through initially appeals to administrative judges. the board has regional and field offices throughout the country. there are about 65 administrative judges. someone a federal employee who is fired files an appeal in one of those regional offices. the administrative judge conducts a hearing much like a trial, except there's no jury call

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now.aitlin, we've been covering this, working on this, reporting it out over the course of weeks. now. i think at this point, what does the team have access to right now? do we know what's happening in the treasury department? >> well. >> it. >> appears they have access to a super secret, super sensitive system within the treasury department. it's so sensitive and so low key in the way the treasury department operates that other administrations political appointees were barely paying attention to it. but what this is, is it's the essentially the accounting department for the entire federal government. it is the payment processor. so any time an agency says yes to a payment or says no to a payment, they refer that information back over to the treasury department, the bureau of fiscal service. and then they just cut the checks. what one person told me about that is that in looking at what elon musk, people affiliated with trump, people affiliated with elon musk are doing now that they are wo

katelyn polantz, thank you so much for all your reporting, john. >> all right. this morning, members of congress hearing anger back home and in some cases getting angry themselves. more than 100 protesters appeared outside the local offices of republican congressman ryan zinke in missoula and bozeman, montana. nbc montana reports, quote, the group of protesters claimed zinke puts public figures, including president donald trump and elon musk, before his constituents. this comes as some republicans in congress are starting to publicly criticize musk and his ultimatums on the federal workforce. this was republican congresswoman nicole malliotakis. >> and i think some of this is happening too fast and furiously. there are rash decisions being made, and it needs to kind of slow down a little bit and involve the people who are actually appointed to head these agencies to incorporate efficiencies and changes. >> sounds like you think musk went too far in this one case. >> well, yes, i do. >> all right. with me now is the aforementioned congressman ryan zinke, a republ

. >> cnn's katelyn polantz is following this story. do we know why she quit? caitlin. >> we do. and we have obtained the resignation letter that this prosecutor wrote to her boss, a political appointee, ed martin, in the d.c. u.s. attorney's office, saying she was done. and it was because martin and others at main justice, other people installed by donald trump to lead that department, she just didn't think that there was enough to open a criminal investigation and to take steps to freeze bank accounts related to climate and environment spending. uh, that the department wanted her to do. she said she was not going to be opening a grand jury investigation. she just didn't see that there was enough to say to a bank that they needed to freeze funds at that bank related to this federal spending because of a criminal predicate, even though the u.s. attorney had ordered her to do that. so all of this taken together, this this top prosecutor name is denise chung. she's just another person in the justice department who has been there a very long time, very well respected, who is saying,

pamela katelyn polantz, thank you. turning now to a legal setback for a large group of university students who get financial aid. they asked a washington, d.c., court to block elon musk's doge from accessing their personal data. but the judge declined to intervene. cnn senior legal analyst elie honig joins us now. ali, i want to get to this in a second, but i first just want to process what caitlin just laid out and just what your view of this is and the significance of these prosecutors who have been resigning from their posts at doj. >> well, pam, there's nothing normal about this wave of resignations that we've seen. of course, we saw seven career nonpolitical prosecutors all resign around the eric adams case. and now here we have another person who has been a prosecutor for a long time, not a political appointee, who has resigned over an order she was given, apparently, to open up some sort of grand jury, meaning criminal investigation of spending relating to the environment. so clearly, this person had strong, pri

cnn's katelyn polantz is with me now. this gave us a real look into how trump feels about doge and about musk at this point in time. >> it does. sarah, one of the things that. >> is so striking. >> about this. >> is that people. >> really are having. >> a hard time. >> even though trump. >> is out. >> there talking about doge and musk. musk is appearing in. >> the. >> oval office. >> people are. >> having a. >> hard time understanding what doge is and what doge does, especially in the. legal context. so you're seeing right now not just. >> judge tanya chutkan. >> that judge very much loathed by trump, who had presided over his criminal case in washington, d.c. now she's saying, i can't step in right now to curtail the work that doge is doing at agencies accessing data systems, potentially being involved in hiring decisions or personnel decisions across the government. she can't do it because nobody has enough information to show that they have imminent, irreparable harm. it is hard to get a court to step in at an early st

katelyn polantz, thank you so much. appreciate all of your reporting, and i'm sure it will get even more detailed as time goes on. john berman. >> all right, new overnight jeers from angry constituents at a missouri town hall with republican congressman mark alfred the second. he mentioned elon musk. >> jerry iceman butler elon. >> musk has. >> contracts with the federal government. >> there you go. >> yeah. >> but he. >> is also, i. >> think, doing an effective. >> job conflict of interest. show me a lot of people show me want, uh, to. >> see waste. >> abuse and fraud weeded out some of. >> them. >> here today. i don't want. >> him in charge. >> of it. >> so you could hear the pushback that alfred got there. he won that district by 45 points in the last election. so on theory that republican congressman was on friendly turf. with us now is axios senior contributor margaret talev. margaret, great to see you. and we just saw that at the end of last week with rich mccormick in georgia. we're starting to see this kind of r

. >> cnn's katelyn polantz is following this story for us. caitlin, do we know why she quit? >> we do. we're gaining some. insight into. that through our sources. >> this top. >> prosecutor, her name. >> is denise chung. >> she was. >> running the. >> criminal division. >> in the. >> u.s. attorney's office. >> in. >> washington, d.c., a. longtime prosecutor. >> at the justice. department held. >> lots of. >> different roles. >> there over many. different administrations. she resigned. >> and the reason? >> a clash. >> with what. >> she was being asked to do by the political appointees of. >> the trump. >> administration, including those. >> top people. at main. >> justice, like the. >> acting deputy attorney general. >> emil bove and the. >> man that donald trump. >> has selected. >> on a permanent. >> basis. >> that he wants to run. >> the u.s. attorney's office. >> and. >> martin. >> what we are. >> learning here. >> boris and brianna. >> is that this was. >> over an investigation. >> a grand jury. >> investigation into funding around. >> the. >> environmental protection. a

some katelyn polantz is saying more action could be coming today. so stand by for that. what?ll of these moves, at least most of these moves seem like they are all judges saying, let's hit the pause button so i can actually consider the legal question here. what does that and what does that mean in terms of what could be a long, drawn out fight here with some of these moves? >> yeah. so it's important to understand we are really only at the first step of what will be a long legal process. no judge has actually overturned anything that donald trump has done just yet. what they've done thus far and many judges have done this is put a pause, put an injunction, put a hold on these actions, because the way the law works, it says if some new action gets announced and a party challenges it, what that party has to do is show some likelihood of success, some likelihood that they'll ultimately win, but they don't ultimately have to show that they certainly will win. and so all of these holds are temporary now. and it's really important to remember what donald trump and the administratio

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. so where are judges landing on blocking trump's ability to fire federal workers? because there have been so many lawsuits. help us understand where things stand. so many lawsuits and initial rulings. >> that we're getting. these lawsuits are nowhere near the end. but what judges have been saying so far in at least two cases is that, you know, we might not be the appropriate place to step in and tell donald trump he can't fire federal workers. it might not be something for the courts to deal with. so what happened last night? there was a judge in washington, d.c., a democratic presidential appointee to the bench several years ago, very well respected judge said, you know, the union for the treasury workers, which isn't just the treasury department, that's workers across the federal government, irs workers, forest service workers, hhs workers. they had sued and said, don't let the administration fire us or somehow get rid of us. and he said, i don't actually think that this is something

>> alayna treene katelyn polantz, thank you so much. so let's discuss that and more with democratic congressman jerry moskowitz of florida. he is a member of the house judiciary committee. congressman, thank you for being here with us. first, your reaction to the accusations that the administration is not honoring some of these court orders? >> well, good morning. thanks for having me. well, look, we you know, we got to let that play out in the court system. obviously, the administration can go ahead and appeal, but we know how we got here, right? we already have elon musk and doge in the administration. you know, dealing with funding that is reserved for congress under article one. so we're already kind of dealing with this. but we got to let the process work itself out. we can't just claim constitutional crisis all the time. we can't always be at a ten. so we got to let it work itself out. and eventually, if the administration then doesn't listen to the supreme court, that then obviously would be a time where we could be be outraged.

katelyn polantz, thank you so much. and now let's bring in cnn senior legal analyst and former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district in new york, elie honig. all right, so let's talk about this. i find it fascinating. you know, this judge is asking very basic questions that that you would expect. right. and the doj lawyer, caitlin just said said, look, elon musk is an advisor, not really specifically answering those questions. how do you see this playing out? >> well. >> i. definitely sympathize for that. >> doj lawyer having to go into. court without. >> the answers that he. >> would need to be able to provide to. >> a judge. >> but i think we can look. >> forward to. seeing more of this, because what. >> we've seen so far, pam, has been the preliminary phases. the people who have challenged the actions taken by the trump administration, by. >> musk, by doge, they have all been in the posture. >> of. >> asking for. >> emergency relief. >> they're asking for injunctions. >> and so. >> we've seen this. >> ser

katelyn polantz, thank you so much. well, still ahead, new firings in the federal government.ands now impacted. i'll ask democratic congressman jake clos about the fears from his constituents and what democrats are doing to push back about how these firings and cuts to funding, especially at the national institutes of health, will affect them next. >> an msc cruise isn't just a vacation, it's a holiday full of european style. >> and all the things americans love to come on bloom. >> there are a ton of football matches. >> games, football games. are you ready for some adrenaline? >> i was born ready. how high is that? >> so high. >> privacy. >> privacy. >> gelato. >> froyo. >> architecture. >> architecture. >> that is a big hat. >> it's american, of course it's big. >> what a vacation. >> don't you mean holiday? >> my bad. >> we should stop now. >> yeah. >> i think i changed my mind about these glasses. >> yeah. it happens. that's why visionworks gives you 100 days to change your mind. it's simple. oh. anything else i can help you with? >> like what? >> visionworks. see the dif

cnn katelyn polantz is with me now. a lot happened on monday. a lot of things were said. explain all the ways the courts have essentially put on pause or blocked trump's policies from being implemented, at least for now. >> yeah, it is for now, sara, as of this time. but the courts are acting fast. there was one judge on monday, a federal judge in rhode island who said, hey, the administration, you don't seem to be listening to the court order. i already put in place saying you can't freeze federal funding, going to various programs in the health care space and the environment space. listen, and i'm ordering you again. make sure that money keeps flowing. so that was a real marker of raising the question of is the administration listening to the courts? but sara, what's happening right now is the courts are largely saying, let's keep the status quo. these cases fall into a couple different buckets. a lot of them are challenges to donald trump's efforts to reduce the federal workforce or fire different people in the federal government. also, attempts by the administration t

cnn's katelyn polantz is following this case. caitlin, what more is the president and his lawyers saying? >> well, dana, they are arguing. that this case is about the power of the presidency. this case, it is the first time that we have a case about things that trump is trying to implement in his. second term of the presidency, getting to the supreme court. it's an emergency case. and in this one, it's about can the president fire whomever he wants in the executive branch? and does he have full control over investigations that may be taking place in the executive branch to really key questions about the president's power and the expansion of it? with trump in that position now, the justice department, in their filing on sunday, did talk about this case, about the firing of hampton dellinger, who was serving as the special counsel over federal workers. so the person who would field whistleblower complaints from people across the government about their bosses, basically, and look into them. the justice department is saying to the s

cnn's katelyn polantz and evan perez are here with their new reporting. caitlin, how is the trump administration responding to these court orders? >> well, they're fighting and they're trying to appeal as fast as possible. but trump is complaining about judges coming in and essentially putting on pause things that the trump administration has done on many, many different fronts, policy fronts, his reductions to the federal workforce, his efforts to curtail funding. and the judges are saying, let's keep the status quo and just make sure that what the administration is doing here is legal. we don't know yet what the courts will ultimately decide. these are the things that could maybe even go to the supreme court. but one area, boris, that is really a third rail that has evolved in the last two days is judges piping up around health care. there was a nationwide injunction last night right before midnight, where a judge said, you can't cut federal funding to all of the research and academic groups and health care health system administrations across the count

cnn's katelyn polantz is tracking this one for us. she's back here with us. and caitlin, judge tanya chutkan, who's over my shoulder. this is a name that people will be familiar with when it comes to donald trump. and being in a courtroom. what does her decision mean this time? >> well, kate, this is a temporary decision because that's how the courts are being asked to step in right now. in all of these cases where they're being asked to curtail what doge is up to. and judge chutkan, she did preside over donald trump's criminal case that is now dismissed related to the 2020 election, but she's a pretty experienced judge on the federal court in d.c., and she and two of her other colleagues on that same bench, they keep saying that they can't actually step in right now to stop doge because there just isn't enough evidence and enough understanding of what doge is doing to show that people are being harmed. so in this case, the judge, chutkan, said she was not going to grant a temporary restraining order against doge yesterday. what she was looking at was a chall

. >> brianna and katelyn polantz, we've been seeing this list growing of agencies and departments whose i.t. systems. elon musk's doge team has gained access to gsa, opm, treasury. you can now add noah to that list. well, brianna, it is something that. >> is causing a wave of lawsuits. >> and we're going to be hearing. >> more. >> about exactly what is being accessed by elon musk, the people he's working with at doge, the. department of government efficiency, and then very likely. >> at the office of. >> personnel management. we're going to be hearing about that in court because things are moving fast. there already are at least three lawsuits against musk. a wave of them against musk and doge on not being transparent enough with whatever they are doing as an. advisory committee to the federal government. and then there's another set of lawsuits that we're hearing we're going to be having hearings on this afternoon and tomorrow, emergency hearings in federal court about musk and his team potentially getting access to vast amounts of sensitive information, private information of federal

cnn's katelyn polantz and phil mattingly joins me now with this exclusive reporting.this is really important because the administration has been saying that the access was just supposed to be for read only. right. what have you learned? yeah. >> so right after. >> donald trump comes into office, he shuts down the. >> usaid payments that. >> are outgoing. and the way to do that is through the agency itself. but there is this system at the treasury department that distributes essentially all the checks that go out for the federal government, $5 trillion a year. and what we learned through our understanding of these emails that were being exchanged from trump, people coming in interested in advancing his politics. and then there, speaking to the career, longtime civil servants at treasury, they're saying, shut off usaid payments here in this department as almost a backstop to making sure the state department could then have time to look at the individual payments and turn them off on their end. the tension here is that that's just not how it works. the treasury doesn't m