Trump is in the fight for his life in the courts. A bombshell just dropped.
As President Trump was blown away by what he was informed about a rogue federal judge.
Federal Judge Standing In Trump Admin’s Way Has Connections To Steele Dossier Case
Judge Anthony Trenga, sitting on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, issued a preliminary injunction this week that slams the brakes on efforts by the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to fire employees linked to DEI initiatives. This ruling is a direct challenge to the Trump administration’s mission to restore merit and competence to our national security apparatus.
Trenga’s decision comes as the Trump team, led by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, moves decisively to implement the president’s sweeping executive orders aimed at purging DEI from every corner of the federal bureaucracy. These orders, signed on Trump’s first day back in office earlier this year, demand the termination of all DEI offices, positions, and performance requirements across federal agencies and their contractors. Yet, Trenga’s injunction now forces the CIA and ODNI to jump through bureaucratic hoops—allowing affected employees to submit written appeals and requiring written notifications of any final decisions—before a single termination can proceed.
This isn’t the first time Trenga has thrown a wrench into efforts to uphold justice and accountability. Back in 2022, he oversaw Special Counsel John Durham’s case against Igor Danchenko, a key figure in the debunked Russia collusion hoax that plagued Trump’s first term. Trenga’s rulings in that trial crippled Durham’s ability to present critical evidence, including details from an FBI counterintelligence probe into Danchenko’s shady ties. The judge’s interference didn’t stop there—he even tossed out one of the false-statement charges against Danchenko, paving the way for the Russian-born operative’s full acquittal. Now, Trenga’s latest move to protect DEI loyalists raises serious questions about his commitment to Trump’s America-First priorities.
President Trump has been crystal clear about the stakes. “The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government,” he declared when issuing his “Anti-DEI” executive order. That directive, titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” is a cornerstone of his second-term agenda, aimed at rooting out what he calls wasteful and dangerous policies that prioritize identity over ability. A follow-up order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” doubled down, warning that “these illegal DEI…policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination.”
The Justice Department, backing Ratcliffe and Gabbard, confirmed last month that the intelligence chiefs were acting on Trump’s explicit instructions when they targeted DEI-linked employees for termination. These officials, many of whom thrived under Biden’s woke regime, had no business clinging to their posts under a Trump administration dedicated to excellence and national security. But Trenga’s ruling, sparked by a lawsuit from anonymous intelligence community employees, has temporarily derailed that effort, leaving patriots wondering how deep the deep state’s resistance runs.
Let’s not forget Trenga’s track record with the Danchenko case. Durham’s investigation exposed how Danchenko, a paid FBI informant from 2017 to 2020, fed lies into Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier—a document that fueled years of baseless attacks on Trump. “During his January 2017 interview with the FBI, the defendant initially denied having any contact with Russian intelligence or security services but later, as noted by the agents, contradicted himself and stated that he had contact with two individuals who he believed to be connected to those services,” Durham argued. Yet Trenga barred this damning evidence from the jury, gutting the prosecution’s case and letting Danchenko walk free.
The Danchenko fiasco wasn’t just a one-off. Durham’s probe revealed a web of deceit, including Danchenko’s fabricated claims about a phone call from Sergei Millian, an American citizen allegedly tied to the Trump-Russia conspiracy myth. “The Government should be able to introduce evidence of this prior counterintelligence investigation (and that facts underlying that investigation) as direct evidence of the materiality of the defendant’s false statements,” Durham pleaded with Trenga. But the judge shot it down, leaving the jury in the dark and the truth buried.
Trenga’s DEI ruling now echoes that same pattern of obstruction. The anonymous plaintiffs—self-described “career foreign intelligence officers”—claim they’re being unfairly targeted over a “domestic political dispute.” Their lawyer, Kevin Carroll, whined to Trenga that “Plaintiffs are being fired because of their assumed beliefs about a domestic political issue.” But the Trump administration sees it differently: these are holdovers from a failed Biden-era experiment that put ideology over national interest, and they’ve got to go.
The CIA and ODNI, through the Justice Department, fought back hard. “No matter which way Plaintiffs attempt to frame their current circumstances, this is ultimately a dispute about federal employment,” U.S. Attorney Erik Seibert told Trenga, emphasizing that agency leaders have wide latitude to axe personnel when it’s “necessary or advisable in the interests of the United States.” Ratcliffe himself issued a directive on February 18, stating, “I have determined that it is necessary or advisable in the interests of the United States to terminate all of the employees of the former DIO.” Yet Trenga’s injunction has put that authority on ice.
This clash comes against the backdrop of Trump’s broader war on the swamp. The Biden DOJ’s own inspector general, Michael Horowitz, exposed 17 “significant errors and omissions” in the FBI’s handling of FISA warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page—abuses that went unpunished. Horowitz’s 2019 report also shredded the Steele dossier’s credibility, noting that Danchenko’s interviews “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting.” Trenga, who’s also presided over the secretive FISA Court since May 2023, seems unfazed by this history as he shields DEI bureaucrats from Trump’s cleanup crew.
Durham’s final report, released in May 2023, pulled no punches about how Trenga’s rulings kneecapped his case. “Following a one-week trial, and before the case went to the jury, the judge dismissed Count One of the Indictment pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29,” Durham wrote, lamenting how the jury never got the full picture. That same report confirmed what Trump has said all along: “Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion” when the Russia hoax began. Trenga’s latest ruling feels like a sequel—another roadblock to justice.
The DEI fight isn’t just about jobs; it’s about the soul of our government. Trump’s orders aim to rip out the roots of a system that, as he put it, “threaten the safety of American men, women, and children” by sidelining merit for political correctness. Ratcliffe and Gabbard were ready to deliver, with the CIA chief offering DEI staffers a chance to retire or resign before facing the axe. Trenga’s intervention, however, has given these entrenched insiders a lifeline, forcing the agencies to slog through appeals and paperwork while the president’s agenda hangs in the balance.
Trenga’s history with Danchenko only deepens the frustration. The judge blocked Durham from showing jurors emails where Danchenko pushed fabricated sources—like a 2016 note to his ex-boss suggesting, “If you lack them, use oneself as a source (‘Istanbul-Washington-based businessman’ or whatever) to save the situation and make it look a bit better.” That’s the kind of duplicity Trump’s team is determined to purge, but Trenga keeps standing in the way.
Then there’s the dossier’s lurid “pee tape” lie, which Durham tried to tie to Danchenko’s deceptions. “The Government intends to prove at trial that the defendant falsely sought to attribute the Ritz Carlton Allegations to Mr. Kuhlen, and, as referenced above, to Sergei Millian,” Durham told Trenga. The judge shut that down too, keeping the jury blind to the full scope of Danchenko’s alleged lies—lies that Democrats and their media allies peddled relentlessly against Trump.
For Trump supporters, Trenga’s DEI ruling is a gut punch. It’s not just about a few intelligence officers; it’s about whether the president can deliver on his promise to drain the swamp and put America first. Ratcliffe and Gabbard are fighting to execute Trump’s vision, but with Trenga playing gatekeeper, the deep state’s grip tightens. The Justice Department has vowed to keep pushing, but time is ticking.
