Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian expose how U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempt to fire over 4,000 federal employees during the government shutdown, calling the move “illegal, in excess of authority, arbitrary and capricious.” The hosts reveal how Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought—a Project 2025 architect who posted images of himself as the Grim Reaper—used the shutdown to target career civil servants including Homeland Security cybersecurity experts, with Judge Illston citing Trump’s own statements about closing “Democrat agencies” as evidence the firings were politically motivated rather than budget-related. They detail how the administration’s “ready, fire, aim” approach included recalling furloughed employees just to fire them in person, with hundreds of mistaken termination notices sent to employees who couldn’t access their work emails, violating the Civil Service Reform Act and collective bargaining agreements protecting workers from arbitrary termination.