Trump's DOGEbro struggling in deposition to define what was 'DEI' about federal grants he flagged for cuts

[bigtree]

LanaQuest aka RosaSparks @LqLana
DOGE 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.

Justin Fox Deposition in ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit About the NEH, Part 3 of 7

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 NEH’s grants and was cut amid the Elon Musk-led task force’s 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 DOGE’s use of keywords to cancel research grants was already known, as was the sweep’s 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.

“It’s 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, “It’s 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]

1. DEI has what plants crave.

It's got electrolytes.

[RVN VET71]

2. Very impressive, sharp witted, caring young man

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]

3. This is what meritocracy looks like under Trump.

Stripped of critical thinking skills and blindly following a policy without thinking that anyone will come to review his work.

[NoMoreRepugs]

4. That droopy eyed dipshit needs the ever lovin' shit kicked out of his scrawny ass body.

[2naSalit]

5. So this is...

The point where I am not against capital punishment.

[xuplate]

6. Arrogance and stupity are a toxic mix.

[irisblue]

7. Mediocre white men with some power are a curse upon the land

[Figarosmom]

8. The holocaust is about females?

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]

9. Too chicken to admit 'DEI is anything/everything that insecure white supremicists feel icky about.'

There, I tried to put it in words that such a dim bulb might grasp.

[xocetaceans]

10. The deposition videos are below:

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.

Justin Fox:

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 1 of 6:

Part 2 of 6:

Part 3 of 6:

Part 4 of 6:

Part 5 of 6:

Part 6 of 6:

Adam Wolfson:

Part 1 of 1:

Michael McDonald:

Part 1 of 1:

[sarchasm]

11. I feel assaulted just by watching that.

my eyes literally started to cross ...

[BattleRow]

12. Re: DOGE bros :It's THEIR Opus Dei...

AKA "God's Work".

I will leave it to you to interpret which divinity to whom they genuflect.

[themaguffin]

13. They never can explain anything.

[bigtree]

14. How DOGE Gutted the NEH in 22 Days

___In addition to using ChatGPT to review grants, DOGE employees who had no experience in academic research or the humanities determined whether NEH grants should be funded, depositions show.

In the motion filed Friday, those associations and the Authors Guild called the terminations “unconstitutional” and claimed the NEH violated the First Amendment by targeting grants for their viewpoints and perceived political associations. They argued that the NEH violated the equal protection clause by flagging grant descriptions as “DEI” solely because they included terms such as “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, people of color); “homosexual”; “LGBTQ”; or “Tribal.” They also accused the NEH and its leaders of violating the separation of powers, since DOGE—not the NEH—carried out the termination of the grants, and did it without approval from Congress.

In his deposition, Justin Fox, an employee of the General Services Administration and part of the DOGE Small Agencies Team, said he used the ChatGPT prompt to tag “DEI” grants without instructing the large language model on how to define “DEI.” ChatGPT flagged a number of grants as DEI-related that were ultimately terminated.

Among them was a $349,000 grant to replace an aging HVAC system at the High Point Museum in North Carolina. “Improving HVAC systems enhances preservation conditions for collections, aligning with the goal of providing greater access to diverse audiences,” the ChatGPT DEI rationale stated.

Another project from the University of Oregon Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln seeking funds to support local newspaper digitization and preservation programs was marked “yes” as relating to DEI because the initiative “seeks to enhance digital newspaper programs, making them more accessible and customizable which aligns with DEI goals of inclusivity and representation.”

read more: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2026/03/11/how-doge-gutted-neh-22-days