CBS EVENING NEWS
2/18/25
6:35 PM
JOHN DICKERSON: A federal judge in Washington refused today to block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing government data. The judge said states suing Musk and DOGE had failed to demonstrate "clear evidence of imminent irreparable harm."
MAURICE DUBOIS: Musk and President Trump say DOGE's mission is to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. And The White House claims DOGE has uncovered fraud, at least as the administration defines it. Here’s Weijia Jiang.
WEIJIA JIANG: This is what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to as proof when asked about the fraud that Elon Musk's team claims to have uncovered.
KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a DEI contract, $36,000 for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is a $3.4 million contract, a council for inclusive innovation at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Oh, I love this one, $57,000 for climate change in Sri Lanka.
JIANG: When pressed if those are simply things that don't align with President Trump's policies, Leavitt said...
LEAVITT: I would argue that all of these things are fraudulent, they are wasteful, and they are an abuse of the American taxpayers’ dollar.
JIANG: Last night, DOGE posted on its website what it called a wall of receipts to show its findings to date. So far, it is identified roughly $14 billion worth of federal program cuts, including at least 140 DEI contracts and grants. But all the money allocated was approved by Congress. And DOGE did not provide evidence of a single case of fraud, or even alleged fraud.