The Trump administration said that "radical judges" will "soon learn that denying" President Donald Trump his "constitutionally granted authorities is a gross infringement of the law and will not stand on appeal" after a Bush-appointed judge blocked the administration from firing intelligence agency employees tied to DEI programs.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, a President George W. Bush appointee in Virginia, issued the preliminary injunction on Monday ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline issued by CIA Director John Ratcliffe for the agents to resign or be fired, allowing them to appeal and stay on the federal payroll.

The injunction was part of a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen intelligence agents from the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who were found to be involved in, or working on, DEI programs in the department. 

TRUMP DOJ, EDUCATION DEPT FORM TASK FORCE TO PROTECT FEMALE ATHLETES FROM 'GENDER IDEOLOGY' IN SCHOOLS, SPORTS

"The plaintiffs face termination without any suggestion of wrongdoing or poor performance," Trenga said after the ruling, according to Politico. "Simply requiring the government to follow its regulations is a minimal burden."

The employees, who were abruptly placed on administrative leave in January, were facing termination as part of the Trump administration's effort, supported by Elon Musk, to eliminate DEI-related programs and initiate a large-scale government overhaul. Musk also visited the CIA headquarters on Tuesday to discuss his government efficiency program. 

"These radical judges will soon learn that denying the Chief Executive his constitutionally granted authorities is a gross infringement of the law and will not stand on appeal," Trump administration spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital. 

CONCERNED PARENTS OF TRANS KIDS COMPARED TO 'HATE GROUPS' BY COLORADO DEM: WOULDN'T 'ASK THE KKK' FOR OPINION

"Ending the bigotry of DEI and ensuring the federal government runs efficiently might be a crime to Democrats, but it’s in line with the law," he said.

The 19 employees, who are unnamed, contended in their lawsuit last month that their roles in the DEI programs were "temporary assignments" and that they also had other responsibilities as intelligence officers. The lawsuit also states that "poor performance" wasn't a factor in their dismissal. 

The "imminent termination is therefore arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion," the lawsuit charges.

BAN ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED SEX CHANGES FOR PRISONERS SPARKS DEM WALKOUT IN GEORGIA HOUSE VOTE

Trenga's written order also said the Trump administration must consider employees' "request for reassignment for open or available positions, in accordance with their qualifications and skills." The administration can still fire the employees but first has to present a "report" on the employees' appeals or reassignments to the judge.

This injunction adds to a stack of injunctions and temporary restraining orders placed on several of President Donald Trump's executive orders.  

Trump issued an executive order last month penalizing law firm Perkins Coie for its representation of Hillary Clinton and its DEI policies by targeting the firm’s government contracts and limiting access to federal facilities. Over 300 law professors and legal groups, including the ACLU and Cato Institute, filed briefs supporting Perkins Coie. In February, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking key provisions of President Trump's executive orders aimed at banning DEI programs on university campuses.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser lobbed at least 13 lawsuits against Trump administration policies related to DEI, including the Health and Human Services' (HHS) termination of public health grants, and moves to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Attorney General Pam Bondi directed compliance review investigations Thursday into admissions policies at Stanford University and multiple University of California schools.

The investigation, headed by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, will look into diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at Stanford; University of California, Berkeley; UCLA; and the University of California, Irvine. 

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellow of Harvard Coll., colleges and universities are prohibited from using DEI discrimination in admissions.

60 UNIVERSITIES UNDER INVESTIGATION BY TRUMP ADMIN FOR 'ANTISEMITIC DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT'

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is demanding compliance.

"President [Donald] Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country," Bondi said. "Every student in America deserves to be judged solely based on their hard work, intellect and character, not the color of their skin."

For decades, elite colleges and universities "prioritized racial quotas over equality of opportunity," according to a news release from the DOJ's public affairs office.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PUNISHES STUDENTS WHO TOOK OVER BUILDING DURING ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

The DOJ claims the practice divided Americans and discriminated against entire groups of applicants.

The Trump administration this week filed an emergency Supreme Court appeal, which, if granted, would allow the slashing of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the Education Department.

Fox News Digital reported this week that multiple Virginia colleges cut their DEI departments and initiatives, falling in line with Trump's executive order directives. 

The prior administration "advanced the ideology behind this illegal practice and did nothing to protect the civil rights of American students," the DOJ wrote in the release.

"The Department of Justice will put an end to a shameful system in which someone’s race matters more than their ability," said acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle. "Every college and university should know that illegal discrimination in admissions will be investigated and eliminated."

The compliance investigations into these universities "are just the beginning of the department’s work in eradicating illegal DEI and protecting equality under the law," according to the DOJ.

Fox News Digital's Jeffrey Clark and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

On March 5, Do No Harm, an organization that advocates against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in medicine, among other issues, sued the American Chemical Society for its Scholars Program, which provides financial support to chemistry students from underrepresented backgrounds. The complaint argues the program is illegal because it is not open to white and Asian students. Around two weeks later, Do No Harm also sued the University of Pennsylvania for its partnership with a database called the Black Doctors Directory, which allows patients to find Black physicians.

The lawsuits join a recent uptick in legal action against universities, departments, and professional societies that host programs intended to increase diversity across academia, including in the sciences. In May 2024, for example, White students at the University of Oklahoma sued their school, alleging the university discriminated against them by factoring in race when determining financial aid. In August, a conservative activist group sued the Department of Education over the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, which provides mentoring and research support to underrepresented students pursuing doctoral degrees. Those cases followed the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision against factoring in race when considering college admissions, effectively striking down affirmative action.

“What's happened here is the organizations bringing these lawsuits, they're capitalizing on the fact that the US Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions,” said Vinay Harpalani, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and an expert on affirmative action policies.

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FIRST ON FOX: A study published this week details the degree to which the Biden administration infused DEI policies into the federal government in a report the authors say can serve as a resource for the Trump administration to continue to identify and "destroy" the practice. 

The new study, conducted by the Functional Government Initiative and the Center for Renewing America, identified 460 programs across 24 government agencies in the Biden administration that diverted resources to DEI initiatives.

At least $1 trillion of taxpayer money was infused with DEI principles, the study states.

The study lays out DEI infusion across several federal agencies, including the Defense Department's plan to "integrate environmental/economic justice tools" into training, FEMA’s need to "instill equity as a foundation of emergency management," and the Labor Department's push to "embed equity in a sustainable manner that recognizes the multiple and overlapping identities held by workers."

TRUMP TO SHIFT AWAY FROM DEI VISA POLICY THAT ‘SURGED’ UNDER BIDEN, EXPERT SAYS

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 13985, which was aimed at carrying out the stated goal of "advancing equity and racial justice through the federal government."

"This order mandated a whole of government approach to injecting DEI philosophy into the federal budget," the study says. "In alignment with this directive, the Biden administration apparently spent trillions in DEI-related initiatives in a manner and at a speed that has shrouded public awareness of the financial burden."

'DISTURBING': WHISTLEBLOWER FUMES AT BIDEN-ERA AGENCY PROMOTING DEI PROGRAM AS DEPARTMENT'S 'MISSION'

The report outlines how, over the next four years, the amount spent on DEI efforts was "staggering."

"The cumulative budget of these programs exceeds $1.1 trillion," the report says. "However, this figure does not encompass all DEI-related expenditures, nor does it include every program across these agencies. The findings reveal a substantial increase in DEI spending, largely attributable to policy directives under the Biden administration."

"Of the programs identified, 10 are exclusively dedicated to DEI and could be considered for quick elimination; 144 allocate significant resources to DEI initiatives and should be reviewed if those are to be ended; and 306 programs incorporate DEI to varying degrees, though the extent of their DEI focus is indeterminate based on the available documentation."

The report goes department by department and calculates the DEI programs and provides recommendations on how they should be addressed. 

"DEI is deeply rooted throughout all aspects of the federal government, and it needs to be eliminated completely," Center for Renewing America senior adviser Wade Miller told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

"Thankfully, the Trump administration has already embarked on a vitally necessary complete audit of each and every government program. We offer, in this report, what we hope are additional resources and tools that the new administration and Congress can use to identify, destroy and permanently remove DEI from the federal government."

FGI spokesman Roderick Law explained to Fox News Digital that the dual study "could both expedite the elimination of DEI from the executive branch and show just how quickly pernicious ideologies can spread inside the government."

"The nature of DEI is both divisive and anti-American," Law added, "so why force it onto the military or the Commerce Department or the EPA? After President Biden lavishly funded and pushed these controversial principles into every possible area of government, our hope is that raising these questions and offering Congress and responsible executive branch officials tools and suggestions can keep it from happening again."

The Trump administration has made it a top priority to rid DEI from the federal bureaucracy and the president has signed multiple executive orders aimed at addressing what it argues is a practice that does more harm than good by ignoring meritocracy. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for comment. 

• The Pentagon is erasing photos, videos, and articles from military websites.
• The whitewash is part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's crackdown on DEI.
• Hegseth said he thinks DEI efforts harm unity among troops and "erode camaraderie."

Shindigs on base. Pride celebrations. A tribute to a fallen warrior.

These are among the years of celebrations and recognition of the US military's diversity being expunged on orders from the Trump administration, a time-consuming effort that extends the DEI crackdown from canceling future Black History Months for its workforce of 3 million to erasing all evidence that military commands had ever recognized them.

The online content purge is the latest in a series of policy changes President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have ordered at the Pentagon, including regulations targeting transgender troops.

Since late January, error messages reading "content not available" or "page not found" have appeared on webpages depicting diversity day events hosted at military bases, biographies of pioneering military leaders, and stories advocating for women, racial minority groups, and LGBTQ+ troops.

The erasure adds to concerns about the new administration and raises questions about why the military would devote resources to eliminating past projects intended in part to prompt more people to consider a military career in a difficult recruiting era.

'Our Diversity is Our Strength'

Over the last month, Hegseth has criticized the Pentagon's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as divisive, saying he thinks "the single dumbest phrase in military history is, 'Our Diversity is Our Strength.'"

"I think our strength is our unity, our strength is our shared purpose; regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race, in this department we will treat everyone equally," the defense secretary said during a town hall at the Pentagon in February.

"We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect," Hegseth continued. "And we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission."

The Trump administration took the concerning and unprecedented move to axe top military leaders within the US military as part of its DEI pushback, including Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black officer to lead a military branch, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's first female service chief.

'Identity Months Dead at DoD'

Hegseth said he believes diversity-related initiatives "erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution."

Hegseth said in a January press release that viewing troops by anything other than their "merit" is meant to "divide or create complications that otherwise should not and do not exist."

And the wide-ranging online content removal is ensuring that diversity content doesn't exist — at least on US government websites.

As one of the largest employers in the US, the Defense Department oversees a geographically and racially diverse workforce and has recognized traditions like Black History Month for decades.

The US military's active-duty force of 1.3 million is predominantly male, with white as the largest self-identifying race at 68%, according to the Pentagon's 2023 demographic report. The enlisted ranks are more diverse than the officer corps, with Black troops accounting for 19.5% and Latinos 21.7%.

Of the more than 400,000 racial minority troops, only about 15% are officers, and the lowest percentage of racial diversity is found among the highest-ranking officers across all service branches.

Deleting DEI

In addition to halting DEI efforts at the Pentagon going forward, Hegseth also mandated a "digital content refresh across all DoD public platforms," ordering the removal of diversity-related content by March 5.

A memorandum of the February 27 mandate broadly described relevant content as "information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters with respect to promotion and selection reform, advisory boards, councils, and working groups."

The mandate also required the removal of content related to "merit-based or colorblind policies" and cultural heritage months.

Since late February, photos and videos of cultural celebrations and stories highlighting groundbreaking servicemembers have been erased from military-run social media accounts and the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, the Pentagon's public media database.

Vanishing voices

The vague directive has led to a slew of content related to women, racial minority groups, and LGBTQ+ troops disappearing from military-run websites.

"I guess I'll just stop taking photos of and sharing the stories of women and Black soldiers," an Army public affairs official told Military.com. "Not sure how else to interpret this."

People have taken to social media to share the stories of diversity that have gone dark on the Pentagon's official digital platforms.

A transgender US soldier noticed the official Facebook account of the US Army's I Corps had taken down her 2021 Army Heritage Month video and re-shared the video on social media.

Similarly, an article published in May 2023 about the legacy and achievements of West Point female graduates was taken down. The article mentioned trailblazing women like Maj. Kristen Griest, one of the first two women to graduate from the US Army Ranger School, and 2nd Lt. Emily Perez, who had been a high-ranking cadet leader at West Point.

Perez was also the first Black female officer in US military history to die in combat after she was killed in action while leading a convoy in Iraq in 2006. Some videos about Perez's service were erased on the Army's public platforms.

"I also talked about how my dad served for 24 years and the impact of 9/11. Now it's just gone," a user who identified herself as a former soldier said on social media after noticing a video profiling her was deleted. "Not going to lie it stings knowing my dad's service didn't matter, Emily's service didn't matter to them, and mine doesn't either."

Flagged keywords

In an internal memo sent last week, the Army's Office of the Chief of Public Affairs listed nearly 60 keywords for officers to use to target online material for removal, Military.com reported.

The internal memo included terms like "culture," "diversity," "racism," and "sexuality." "Respect," one of the Army's core values, was also among the list of search terms for removable content.

"This directive is antithetical to everything public affairs is supposed to be about," an Army public affairs official told Military.com. "The Army has ethically compromised everyone."

• Colossal Biosciences is aiming to revive extinct species like the woolly mammoth.
• The startup has raised over $400 million to fund its de-extinction and conservation missions.
• Its founder and CEO, Ben Lamm, told BI about the potential revenue streams the startup is exploring.

How can a startup provide a return on investment from bringing the woolly mammoth back from the dead?

Ben Lamm, the CEO and cofounder of Colossal Biosciences, the startup developing "de-extinction technology," says the real returns are in the discoveries you make along the way.

The startup has raised over $400 million from investors for its headline missions of reviving extinct species and conservationism.

But in the same way that the space race gave us ancillary technological innovations like GPS and artificial limbs, Lamm says that Colossal Biosciences' mammoth moonshot could spur monetizable advances in biotech.

"There's so much that goes into humans landing on the moon," he told Business Insider. "Well, the same thing goes for de-extinction — you have to build computational biology, cellular engineering, stem cell reprogramming, genetic engineering, monoclonal screening, and embryology."

Some of those technologies could be "so powerful," said Lamm, that the startup is exploring spinning out technologies in areas like longevity, human healthcare, and plastic degradation.

But first, the startup must find a way to revive an animal that went extinct 4,000 years ago.

A mammoth task

So, how does one bring back an extinct animal?

Lamm told BI that the Texas-based startup is taking the opposite approach to Jurassic Park, in which fictional scientists use frog DNA to fill in the gaps in dinosaur DNA that have degraded over time.

Instead, Colossal Biosciences starts with the closest living relative to the woolly mammoth, the Asian elephant.

The startup then uses AI to analyze samples of woolly mammoth DNA, including some well-preserved samples from Alaska and Siberia, ranging from "about 3,500 years old to about 700,000 years old," Lamm said.

That helps Colossal "understand what makes a mammoth a mammoth" before the startup engineers those genes into an Asian elephant cell, Lamm said. In other words, it would be like adding dinosaur genes to frogs, rather than using frogs to fill in dinosaur DNA gaps.

"It's like reverse Jurassic Park," Lamm said.

Colossal is aiming to bring back a woolly mammoth calf, born to a surrogate elephant mother, by late 2028.

On the path to reviving the mammoth, the startup this week announced a new breakthrough in multiplex genome engineering: the birth of a "colossal woolly mouse." The process involved engineering mice so they exhibited mammoth-like qualities, such as thicker fur, that would enable them to adapt to cold environments, Colossal Biosciences said.

"It is an important step toward validating our approach to resurrecting traits that have been lost to extinction and that our goal is to restore," Beth Shapiro, the chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, said in a Tuesday press release.

Startups find a way — to make money

Beyond engineering ancient DNA, Lamm said that the company's ambition — and thesis for its investors — had always been to spin out research and technology cases with broader applications, like human healthcare.

Launched in 2021, Colossal Biosciences has attracted a slew of high-profile investors, including celebrities such as Chris Hemsworth and Paris Hilton, as well as firms including At One Ventures and Draper Associates.

Its most recent $200 million round, led by TWG Global, brings the startup's total funding to $437 million — at a valuation of $10.2 billion.

Colossal's first spinout company was Form Bio, which raised $30 million to help scientists manage large datasets. Its second spinout company, Breaking, focuses on synthetic biology to tackle the issue of plastic degradation — and raised a fresh $10.5 million last year.

"It's fun for our investors, who get a ride along with all this other stuff," said Lamm.

'It's kind of terrifying'

Alongside its de-extinction technology, Colossal is creating tools meant to help conservation efforts for species that still roam the planet.

Depending on the severity of the climate crisis, the world could lose up to 27% of vertebrae species by 2100, a European Comission forecast from 2022 said.

"We need new tools in the fight against biodiversity loss," Lamm told BI. "It's kind of terrifying."

The company says it provides conservation technology, which it calls "de-extinction toolkits," to its 48 partners, which include the charities Save the Elephants and Re:wild. These include breeding programs that help preserve endangered species, especially those threatened by zoonotic diseases, its website states.

One potential revenue stream is offering "nature credits." Similar to carbon credits, the idea is that companies would buy into nature-positive commitments, which Lamm says could become "long-term annuity streams."

Although speculative — Lamm didn't share a timeline — it could offer Colossal a huge opportunity in the wider carbon credits market.

"While we believe there's a massive ecological impact in rewilding, just to be capitalistic for a second, we think that we'll make billions of dollars in annuities off of having animals healthy back in the wild now," he added.

Another potential income stream for the startup is ecotourism. Colossal says it's in discussions with governments over potential "nine-figure" contracts. However, reviving one mammoth is the startup's priority before it can entertain the idea of a Jurassic Park-style venture.

Trillion-dollar ambitions

Colossal has plans to open its flagship lab this year — and a slew of milestones it aims to hit.

Armed with its fresh funding, the startup plans to examine other avian and mammalian species it hopes to revive. Colossal already plans to bring back the dodo.

The startup is also developing an artificial womb to gestate mammoths and other species, such as northern white rhinos and polar bears. By 2026, the company's artificial womb team hopes to birth a mammal ex-utero.

Lamm is bullish about the upstart's growth trajectory.

"We believe this is a trillion-dollar company," he said. "And we believe this company will potentially have more impact than many other companies have had on the planet."

• One of Biden's top DEI chiefs said she wants to dispel "myths" amid Trump's rollback of the practice.
• Alaysia Black Hackett told Business Insider that corporations should hold firm to DEI practices.
• She said that companies are now reaching out to her for advice.

A former DEI chief who served in the Biden administration wants to "dispel a lot of the myths" swirling around diversity initiatives.

These include the idea that DEI hires aren't recruited on merit, or that diversity initiatives are only aimed at benefiting Black People, said Alaysia Black Hackett, who served as the Department of Labor's chief diversity and equity officer before resigning last month.

"It is not: 'You have to make sure you have a woman in a leadership position," Black Hackett said in an interview with Business Insider. "It is looking at the data to say: 'What groups of people are we missing and how can this be a detriment to the service?'"

The sentiment toward DEI has been shifting in recent months. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of people who see DEI as a positive fell from 56% to 52% between February 2023 and October 2024. At the same time, those who saw it as a bad thing grew from 16% to 21%.

But Black Hackett says the field is misunderstood, in part thanks to a tough media environment, and the Biden administration not being good at touting its own achievements. She said she believes people don't want to understand what diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility really stand for.

"People want to hate it because it seemed to benefit one race of people more than it fits another," she said.

What does DEI do?

During her two and a half years in the Biden administration, Black Hackett said federal hiring initiatives were merit-based and designed to "ensure that our internal federal workforce mirrored the communities that we serve."

If federal bodies lacked diversity of thought, "we're going to miss something," she said.

Black Hackett described much of her work as being aimed at making sure that federal funding filtered through to people who are either under-resourced, or are in historically underrepresented groups.

Much of her work focused on determining how federal funding could effectively reach marginalized communities. This included identifying rural communities that needed better internet access — a fixture in Biden's infrastructure law in 2021.

"When you look at data about rural communities, you will see that it's not typically inundated with people of color," she said, adding that "most Americans fit under at least one of the categories under DEIA."

Impact on corporate DEI

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month ending DEI programs in the federal government. The Trump administration has said DEI "divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination."

Trump has directed federal agencies to compile lists of private companies' DEI efforts, and many, including Meta and Walmart, have decided to roll back or end their DEI programs. Others, like JP Morgan and Costco, have not altered course on their diversity policies.

Black Hackett said that companies are reaching out to her for advice.

"I have small business owners who are asking me: 'Alaysia, what do I do? What direction is this going to impact me?'" she said.

She said that companies feeling cowed should "bunker down, stand up for what's right, and look at your data" to see the benefits.

"Productivity goes up," she said. "Statistics show that. People are more productive if they feel like they're welcome in their environment, their thoughts, their opinions."

A 2022 report by the International Labor Organization said that DEI can add value to businesses through increased employee productivity, stronger collaboration with colleagues, and improved well-being.

The recent DEI rollback could make people become "afraid to even show up as their authentic selves," Black Hackett said.

Even so, she feels positive about the future of DEI initiatives.

"What I will say, and I will say it quite candidly, is DEIA is resilient," she said. "The work doesn't stop."

The White House didn't reply to a request for comment.

• Goldman Sachs mentioned diversity just 3 times in this year's report.
• It said its "aspirational hiring goals" will expire this year without saying if it would set new goals.
• The firm's CEO, David Solomon, pointed to the political landscape under the Trump administration.

Goldman Sachs tamped down the diversity language in its annual report as DEI efforts come under fire from the Trump adminitration.

The bank also said "aspirational hiring goals" it set five years ago expire this year without saying whether it planned to set new goals.

Goldman's 2024 annual report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, referenced diversity relating to human capital just three times, versus 14 in the 2023 report and 16 times in the 2022 report. The Wall Street bank also eliminated a section of the report previously titled "Diversity and Inclusion," its hiring breakdown by race and gender and its diverse hiring goals by race and gender.

Earlier this year, Goldman dropped a policy requiring companies its advises on IPOs to have at least two women directors.

Goldman isn't alone. The $11 trillion asset manager BlackRock this week also cut mentions of its "three pillar DEI strategy" in its annual report, as well as a breakout of its employee demographics by race and gender. It also amended the metrics used to determine borrowing costs for a $4.4 billion credit facility which was previously tied to its efficacy in boosting internal DEI targets.

The changes come as President Trump cracks down on DEI. In January, he invoked directed the Department of Justice to investigate DEI policies, prohibiting private organizations from instituting such initiatives in employment practices related to federal contracts.

In a statement, Goldman CEO David Solomon cited changes to the law.

"We have made certain adjustments to reflect developments in the law in the US," he said. "Our people are a powerful example of that and that's why we will continue to focus on the importance of attracting and retaining diverse, exceptional talent."

Goldman said in the report that it still believes in a diverse workforce and would "continue to develop programs consistent with our fundamental commitment to inclusive merit-based promotion and compliance with the law."

The bank's 2023 report set goals to hire of 50% women analysts and associates, 11% Black professionals and 14% Hispanic/Latinx professionals in the Americas, and 9% Black professionals in the UK.

In 2023, it also broke down its workforce by race and gender, saying its analyst and associate hires included 49% women professionals, 9% Black professionals and 13% Hispanic/Latinx professionals in the Americas, and 15% Black professionals in the UK.

Also gone are mentions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. In the 2023 report, Goldman said it would seek to double the number of campus hires in the US recruited from HBCUs in 2025 relative to 2020.What's more, a breakdown of the firm's aspirational goals for diverse hiring is also missing.

For Goldman, DEI has historically been framed as a business imperative. In its 2022 annual report, the firm stated that "diversity at all levels" was "essential to our sustainability" and cited efforts to increase representation among women and underrepresented groups. At the time, the firm touted stats, such as one where it said approximately 57% of Goldman's board was diverse by race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Even so, its track record on DEI has come under fire for other reasons. Last year, reporting from The Wall Street Journal found that numerous senior women at the bank felt it hadn't done enough to support their career prospects or advancement, and was still heavily male-dominated.

Reed Alexander is a reporter for Business Insider. He can be reached via email at ralexander@businessinsider.com, or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.