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The account comes from six people with knowledge of the events that took place as President Donald Trump falsely claimed the LA fires were a result of the state's water policies, and demanded more water be sent south. The people who spoke with CNN were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the events. They also feared retaliation from the Trump administration.
The new details serve as a peek into the inner workings of the chaotic second Trump administration in its first weeks as it sparred with California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the response to the Los Angeles fires.
A power outage — and the fact that at least one of the DOGE representatives was not yet an employee of the federal government and therefore was not allowed near the pump controls — ultimately threw a wrench in the plan to engage the pumps in late January.
But a few days later, in a show of authority that superseded California's own water policy, Trump ordered the US Army Corps to open two dams in central California, which ultimately flooded farmland in the San Joaquin Valley with 2.2 billion gallons of fresh water. State water experts previously told CNN it was a regrettable waste as farmers look anxiously toward the state's dry season.
Water experts told CNN after the incident the water release was wasteful and put farmers at risk of running out of water this summer and fall. The water flowed into the dry Tulare lakebed and soaked into the ground.
The Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for DOGE and the two DOGE representatives involved did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.
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📷: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images; Eric Thayer/AP; DOGE/X; Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data/Getty Images
