A federal judge in California said on Thursday that the US Office of Personnel Management must withdraw memos calling for other federal agencies to terminate probationary employees en masse, stating that the OPM exceeded its legal authority.

President Donald Trump said the Office of Personnel Management emails that were sent to federal workers are “somewhat voluntary” but also said if not answered could lead to firing.

A rift appeared to open Sunday between some of President Donald Trump’s agency heads and Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with reforming the federal government, over Musk’s demand that all federal employees state their weekly accomplishments or risk termination.

A U.S. judge ordered OPM to retract memos urging agencies to fire probationary employees, calling them likely illegal.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum Wednesday to federal agency heads, outlining steps to implement President Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) Workforce Optimization Initiative.

The Trump administration ordered all federal departments and agencies to submit reorganization plans outlining how they would implement large-scale layoffs before March 13, following an sent from OPM to more than 2 million federal employees late last week.

The revised memo from Charles Ezell, the acting director of OPM, comes after a federal judge ruled last week that the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary workers, who generally have been in their jobs for less than one year,