'Can't believe someone found this': Experts amazed by legal tool White House turned up

The White House is trying to tamp down a wave of lawsuits over its actions by invoking a rarely used rule that has shocked legal experts.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz reported that the White House circulated a memo to agency heads Thursday attacking the lawsuits as partisan impediments to president Donald Trump's agenda and encouraged them to invoke a procedural rule requiring plaintiffs to post money at the start of their court case to cover costs and damages if the government ultimately prevails.

"There are steps the White House is taking to try and chill lawsuits like [one challenging Elon Musk's role in the administration]," Polantz said. "We saw last night a memo to agencies where they are going to invoke this rule that basically no one uses in federal court to ask judges, the Justice Department will go be able to go and ask judges to require people who sue the administration for emergency relief to put up money."

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The rule is on the books, so the administration can try to use it to their advantage, but attorneys Polantz polled were astonished.

"When I was calling people last night and said, 'Is this rule real? Can they do that?'" Polantz said. "People, even liberal lawyers that I knew that were part of these cases started laughing like, 'Wow, I can't believe someone found this rule.' They can invoke it, no one ever does, but the Trump administration is going."

Trump himself handed a gift to a group of nonprofits and unions that are challenging the legality of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by clearly identifying Musk as the head of that newly created budget-slashing entity during his congressional address, which contradicts administration claims about its leadership.

"Just after the address that he gave to congress the other night, there were at least two cases I saw where lawyers said, when they're fighting, these are cases where they're fighting Elon Musk, his power and DOGE," Polantz said. "In those cases, they they filed supplemental authority to the court just to say the president just said Elon Musk is the head of DOGE, which is going to be very pivotal."

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