Elon Musk has suffered a legal blow with a judge slamming the ‘unprecedented secrecy’ of DOGE and demanding the release of internal documents.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a suit against the department in an effort to remove some of the secrecy surrounding its operations.
District Judge Christopher Cooper published a 37-page ruling which determined the Department of Government Efficiency was not immune to scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act.
‘The authority exercised by USDS across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented,’ he wrote.
Cooper cited weeks of media reporting about how Musk has taken an axe to federal agencies in an effort to root out wasteful spending.
Some estimates say DOGE has had a hand in tens of thousands of job losses across the bloated federal bureaucracy.
But that power which has been lauded has now come back to haunt Musk and his nerd army, with Cooper determining that a department wielding so much power will need to be transparent under federal law – and must take steps to do so without delay.
‘All these factors together bolster the Court’s conclusion that a years-long delay in processing the USDS Request would cause irreparable harm,’ the court ruled.
Elon Musk has suffered a legal blow with a judge slamming the ‘unprecedented secrecy’ of DOGE and demanding the release of internal documents
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a suit against the department in an effort to remove some of the secrecy surrounding its operations
‘The rapid pace of USDS’s actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities.’
When CREW filed an FOI request with DOGE, authorities responded maintaining it did not need to comply because it is not an ‘agency’ subject to FOIA laws.
DOGE has been operating under the wider umbrella of the Executive Office of the President, which is primarily exempt from the FOIA. But there are some exceptions in which it can become subject to transparency laws.
Cooper determined DOGE’s ‘operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy’ and remarked about the ‘outsized influence on federal government’ Musk’s team wields.
The ruling states that DOGE employees were instructed to communicate via messaging app Signal, which has a function that deletes and permanently wipes messages after they are sent and received.
Quoting a New York Times report ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the ruling states ‘[p]eople involved in the operation [said] that secrecy and avoiding leaks is paramount, and much of its communication is conducted on Signal.’
And while the government maintains Musk is merely an adviser to the president, the ruling noted: ‘Mr. Musk claimed credit for placing large numbers of USAID employees on administrative leave in February, revelling that ”We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper”’ in a post on X on February 3.
In all, around 4,154 USAID staff were placed on leave in the days prior to and following that X post.
DOGE has been operating under the wider umbrella of the Executive Office of the President, which is primarily exempt from the FOIA. But there are some exceptions in which it can become subject to transparency laws
Musk has also been linked to the voluntary redundancy package the Trump administration offered federal staff, which a reported 75,000 have accepted.
‘In a move viewed by some as pernicious, USDS has obtained unprecedented access to sensitive personal and classified data and payment systems across federal agencies,’ the ruling states.
Cooper noted in his ruling that Trump administration lawyers had not provided any clarity or further detail about the work DOGE is carrying out.
‘Indeed, the Court wonders whether this decision was strategic,’ Cooper noted.
‘[DOGE] becomes, on defendants’ view, a Goldilocks entity, not an agency when it is burdensome but an agency when it is convenient.’
In January, almost the entire workforce of federal employees received a deferred resignation offer that came with eight months of pay in an initial DOGE effort to reduce spending.
Thousands of probationary employees have been fired across the board, including at HHS. The layoffs have sparked mass protests and lawsuits from disgruntled workers.
Most recently, 80,000 federal health workers were offered a $25,000 incentive to leave their jobs.
Thousands of probationary employees have been fired across the board, including at HHS. The layoffs have sparked mass protests and lawsuits from disgruntled workers
The ultimatum was given to employees responsible for researching diseases, inspecting food and administering Medicare and Medicaid.
The workers – employed by Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – received an email detailing the proposal.
They could begin opting in from Monday and have until 5pm on Friday to agree to the ‘voluntary separation offer.’
The latest court ruling comes just days after Trump assured department heads that staffing decisions ultimately lay with them – not Musk.
But he said if tough decisions that need to be made aren’t done so appropriately, Musk is waiting in the wings to swoop in.
‘If they can cut, it’s better. If they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting,’ Trump said Thursday.
Musk has repeatedly criticized judges and courts across the nation for engaging in ‘lawfare’ to minimize his efforts.
‘Lawfare has gotten out of control,’ Musk wrote last month in response to a separate suit.
