Trump's Legal Woes: Breaking Laws, Breaking America?

Since the beginning of his second term, Donald Trump has been accused of breaking the law on several occasions. The House Jan. 6 committee has urged the Justice Department to consider prosecuting the former president for four different crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and inciting or aiding an insurrection. Trump has also been accused of illegally freezing all federal grants and loans, which could jeopardize funding for disaster relief, home heating assistance, and school lunch programs. In addition, there are concerns that Trump's recent granting of access to sensitive government systems to private individuals may violate multiple federal statutes, including the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Finally, Trump's federal buyout program has raised legal questions, with some experts arguing that it may violate the Anti-Deficiency Act and the Administrative Leave Act. While the ultimate outcome of these accusations remains to be seen, they have sparked intense debate and legal challenges.

Trump's executive orders

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, fulfilling many of his campaign promises. Trump's immigration promises were a key part of his successful presidential campaign.

Trump signed an order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants, which was enshrined in the US Constitution, and as such, immediately faced legal challenges in court from civil rights groups and immigration activists. He also instructed the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that work permits are not given to people without legal status, even if they have a pending immigration application. This change would drastically reduce the number of people eligible to work legally in the US.

Trump also took steps to ""seal"" the US-Mexico border, including enlisting the US military to "repel" migrants, tapping into military funding and personnel for border enforcement, and laying the groundwork to resume the Remain in Mexico policy. He also revoked all Biden policies that set priorities for immigration enforcement.

Trump's pardons of the Jan 6 rioters

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of over 1,500 people charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. This included people convicted of assaulting police officers, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups. Trump's pardons were seen as a culmination of his years-long campaign to rewrite the history of the January 6 attack and cast those involved as "patriots" and "hostages".

The pardons were met with elation from Trump supporters and lawyers for the defendants. However, Democrats and some Republicans criticised the move, particularly regarding violent rioters. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it "an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma". Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, also stated that it was a "mistake" to pardon individuals who had assaulted police officers.

The pardons and commutations had a significant impact, paving the way for the release of individuals found guilty of violent attacks and allowing leaders of extremist groups to walk free. This action by Trump undermined the Justice Department's efforts to hold participants accountable for their roles in the attack, which left more than 100 police officers injured and resulted in extensive damage to the Capitol building.

Trump's pardons of the January 6 rioters can be viewed as a highly controversial decision that sparked intense debate and further polarised an already divided nation. While Trump and his supporters celebrated the pardons as a victory, many others saw them as a threat to the rule of law and a potential encouragement for future acts of political violence.

Trump's federal buyout program

The buyout offer was emailed to every federal worker on January 28, 2025, by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The email frames the offer as a way to make the government smaller and more efficient. However, the proposal has sparked significant legal and political scrutiny, with some unions and prominent Democrats warning federal workers against taking it.

Legal and government experts have raised questions about the legality of the OPM buyout, expressing concerns that it may violate the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prohibits the government from spending more money than Congress has appropriated, and the Administrative Leave Act. The Trump administration has insisted that the offer will not result in any guaranteed payments beyond the current appropriations period, but critics argue that the program's structure could raise the risk of incurring obligations beyond the provisions in the federal budget, potentially violating federal law.

Another legal concern stems from the Administrative Leave Act of 2016, which places strict limits on how federal employees can be placed on leave. The Trump administration's deferred resignation program, which effectively places employees on leave while continuing to pay them, may run afoul of this statute as well.

The buyout program is also complicated by the expiration of current funding in March 2025. OPM has attempted to address concerns by clarifying that workers who choose to leave under the program will still be entitled to back pay, as stipulated by the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act. However, some employees have expressed confusion over whether their positions will be exempt from the resignation offer, with unclear exclusions for certain categories of workers, including those in national security and immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration's federal buyout program, with its sweeping scope and legal ambiguities, has raised concerns among experts and federal employees alike. The potential impact on government operations and the economy remains uncertain, but the program underscores the administration's aggressive approach to reshaping the federal workforce and reducing its size.

Trump's immigration agenda

Donald Trump's immigration agenda has been a key part of his political campaigns and both terms in office as US President. Trump's policies have been criticised for their xenophobic and racist undertones, as well as their negative impact on immigrant communities and their families.

• Ending birthright citizenship: Trump has signed an executive order directing federal agencies to refuse US citizenship to children born to mothers in the country illegally or on non-immigrant visas, if the father is not a US citizen or green card holder. This is in direct opposition to the 14th Amendment and has been challenged in court.
• Creating "Homeland Security Task Forces": Trump has established federal, state, and local law enforcement task forces to cooperate in removing gang members, criminals, and undocumented individuals. This has raised concerns about racial profiling and civil rights violations.
• Reinstating the "Remain in Mexico" policy: This policy requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their applications are processed by US immigration courts. It has been criticised for endangering asylum seekers by forcing them to remain in unsafe conditions.
• Ending "Catch and Release": Trump has ended the practice of releasing detained individuals into the community while their cases are processed, instead opting for mass deportations and the use of detention camps.
• Suspending refugee resettlement: Trump has suspended the Refugee Resettlement Program, preventing nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared for resettlement in the US from entering the country.
• Clarifying the military's role: Trump has directed the military to "repel forms of invasion", including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, and human smuggling. This includes deploying troops and National Guardsmen to the US-Mexico border and potentially sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
• Designating cartels as foreign terrorist organisations: Trump has designated drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organisations, citing the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act. This has raised concerns about the potential for further expansion of this policy.
• Denying asylum to individuals apprehended between ports of entry: Trump's administration has made it more difficult for individuals to seek asylum, with those apprehended between ports of entry being immediately removed from the country without the opportunity to apply for asylum.
• Restoring the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers: Trump has signed an executive order directing the attorney general to seek the death penalty when an undocumented individual murders a law enforcement officer.
• Crackdown on illegal immigration: Trump has implemented additional restrictions on immigration, including ending the use of the CBP One app for processing migrants and declaring a national emergency at the border to deploy the military.
• Mass deportation operations: Trump has promised to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history, targeting millions of immigrants and their families. This includes plans to federalise state National Guard personnel and deploy them for immigration enforcement.
• Attacks on children and families: In addition to ending birthright citizenship, Trump's administration has threatened to bar undocumented children from schools and resume the practice of forcibly separating children from their parents at the border.
• Assault on asylum and human rights at the border: Trump has sought to limit or end access to asylum and eliminate other pathways for humanitarian protection. He has also promoted the expansion of the border wall and the militarisation of the border, including the use of tear gas and heat-ray technology against asylum seekers.

Trump's access grant to Elon Musk

In February 2025, the Trump administration gave Elon Musk's team access to a federal payment system that controls trillions of dollars in government funds annually. The system, which is housed in the Treasury Department, is used to handle payments for programmes like Social Security, government salaries, and the disbursement of money allotted by Congress. This move has raised concerns about the potential for misuse or mishandling of sensitive data, including personal information of millions of Americans.

The access granted to Musk's team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been criticised by some as an overreach of executive authority and a potential violation of privacy laws. Legal experts argue that granting DOGE access to such sensitive information may contravene multiple federal statutes, including the Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

In response to these concerns, a group of union members and retirees filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department, alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal payment system and the personal data it houses violated federal privacy laws. As a result, the Trump administration agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE staffers' access to the Treasury Department's payment systems, pending a subsequent hearing on the lawsuit.

This incident is part of a broader pattern of the Trump administration's attempts to grant private individuals access to sensitive government systems and information. In addition to the Treasury Department access granted to Musk's team, the administration has also targeted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for elimination, with Musk's aides freezing most foreign aid and accessing confidential data. These actions have been characterised as illegal and unconstitutional, as USAID was established as an independent entity by an act of Congress in 1998.

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