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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's DOGEbro struggling in deposition to define what was 'DEI' about federal grants he flagged for cuts
LanaQuest aka RosaSparks @LqLanaDOGE staffer Justin Fox explains what he thinks DEI is at a deposition after testifying about flagging grants he believed were DEI. These fucking privileged brats are morons.
As part of a lawsuit brought by the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, and Modern Language Association, Justin Fox was deposed on January 28, 2026 about his role (as senior advisor to Stephen Ehikian, Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator of the General Services Administration, and DOGE team member) in the termination of NEH grants.
watch:
Lawsuit says DOGE used ChatGPT to flag Jewish-themed humanities grants as 'DEI' before canceling them
The suit brought by the Authors Guild; a member organization for several academic groups including the Association for Jewish Studies; and a number of individual scholars seeks to restore the canceled funding, which comprised around 80% of the NEHs grants and was cut amid the Elon Musk-led task forces broader slashing of federal spending last year.
The suit names the NEH, its acting chair, and several DOGE staffers as defendants, including Justin Fox, who the suit alleges was behind the ChatGPT methodology.
While DOGEs use of keywords to cancel research grants was already known, as was the sweeps effect on Jewish projects, the suit has revealed new details in its methodology, including staffers use of ChatGPT and their contention that works dealing with Judaism are a form of DEI.
In a filing on Friday, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Fox specified that he considered Jewish grants, including those focusing on the Holocaust, part of DEI.
For a different grant about violence against women during the Holocaust, Fox testified that ChatGPT properly classified the grants as involving DEI, and thus slated it for termination, because it was specifically focused on Jewish cultures (as in, it was about the Holocaust) and the voices of the females in that culture, reads the filing.
More generally, Fox stated that he identified as DEI any grant about a specific minority group, meaning any particular ethnicity, culture . . . race or gender or religion, the filing went on.
Its a Jewish specifically focused on Jewish culture and amplifying the marginalized voices of the females in that culture, Fox stated about one canceled grant for a project about violence against women during the Holocaust, as the latest court filing described it. Fox continued, Its inherently related to DEI for that reason.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/lawsuit-says-doge-used-chatgpt-to-flag-jewish-themed-humanities-grants-as-dei-before-canceling-them/ar-AA1XTnvm
filing: https://www.historians.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-Complaint.pdf
Tommy Carcetti
(44,478 posts)It's got electrolytes.
RVN VET71
(3,186 posts)JUST KIDDING. Kid's a privileged idiot who trashed programs because he was ordered to by another privileged idiot who, himself, was working for yet another privileged idiot.
This is the quality of human that is responsible for the fascist destruction of American democracy. How in the heck do holocaust documentaries represent DEI? Why doesn't this goofy kid just throw up his hands and admit there is nothing defensible in anything he and his less than sharp colleagues did, that Musk ordered or simply allowed them to do?
(And, yes, I think we all know the many answers to that last question.)
Baitball Blogger
(52,187 posts)Stripped of critical thinking skills and blindly following a policy without thinking that anyone will come to review his work.
NoMoreRepugs
(11,988 posts)2naSalit
(102,112 posts)The point where I am not against capital punishment.
xuplate
(200 posts)irisblue
(37,339 posts)Figarosmom
(11,464 posts)Even so how would that be DEI? If something ONLY happened to females, that's not being discrimination to point it out. The discrimination happened already and was being reported on and corrected.
Attilatheblond
(8,719 posts)There, I tried to put it in words that such a dim bulb might grasp.
xocetaceans
(4,403 posts)Just watch Part 1 of 7 immediately below to see the how thin the background was of those that DOGE was hiring and how much they were paid to destroy parts of the government (roughly a salary of $150,000). Note that they apparently communicated on Signal. Also, note his rational for being interested in joining the government from private equity and the comments around his interest in the deficit. That part of the deposition starts at 49:20 again in the video linked under Part 1 of 7.
Part 1 of 7:
Part 2 of 7:
Part 3 of 7:
Part 4 of 7:
Part 5 of 7:
Part 6 of 7:
Part 7 of 7:
There are also depositions of other individuals for this case:
Nathan Cavanaugh:
Part 2 of 6:
Part 3 of 6:
Part 4 of 6:
Part 5 of 6:
Part 6 of 6:
Adam Wolfson:
Michael McDonald:
sarchasm
(1,305 posts)my eyes literally started to cross ...
BattleRow
(2,297 posts)AKA "God's Work".
I will leave it to you to interpret which divinity to whom they genuflect.