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Donald Trump’s administration claims Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is shielded from public records searches.
But a federal judge says the U.S. DOGE Service is wielding so much “unprecedented” authority with “unusual secrecy” that the agency must comply with public records requests.
DOGE “wields the requisite substantial independent authority” to be subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, according to a late-night filing from District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., referring to federal law that allows members of the public to seek federal records.
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Musk’s project to gut federal agencies and purge the workforce “is not subject to FOIA,” government lawyers wrote last month.
Cooper argued that the administration appears to be making a “strategic” decision to dodge questions about DOGE’s operations and management, qualifying itself as an agency subject to federal law only when it is “convenient,” he wrote.
“The authority exercised by [DOGE] across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented,” Cooper wrote Monday.
The judge’s decision opens DOGE to requests for range of documents, including emails, memos, notes and other records that detail how the agency works and who runs it.
DOGE — formerly the U.S. Digital Service, which operated as a government-wide IT agency before Trump renamed it by executive order — should be insulated from public records requests until at least 2034, according to the White House.
The office “was reorganized under the Executive Office of the President” and was now “subject to Presidential Records,” DOGE official Katie Miller said last month.
The Presidential Records Act shields most documents and communication involving the president, advisers and staff from the public for until five years after leaving office.
In his ruling, Cooper pointed to Musk and Trump publicly taking credit for drastic cuts to federal spending, including Musk’s X post “boasting” about feeding the U.S. Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper.”
“The rapid pace of [DOGE’s] actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities,” Cooper wrote. “That is especially so given the secrecy with which DOGE has operated.”
Cooper also noted the Department of Justice’s apparent failure to provide formal assurance that the office is properly maintaining records, as well as news reports that DOGE staff is using the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate, arguing that the mostly young employees who do not have government experience “to put it charitably, may not fully appreciate their obligations to preserve federal records.”
Musk has stated that DOGE — and “all aspects of the government” — should be “fully transparent and accountable to the people,” with “no exceptions.”
The White House continues to insist he’s not the one running it, nor does he have authority to make any decisions himself. Trump, however, has repeatedly said Musk is in charge. The White House only recently named the acting administrator of DOGE after weeks of attempts from attorneys and members of the press to find out who is allegedly running the agency. The appointment of Amy Gleason to the role appeared to catch her and USDS staff by surprise.
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Monday’s ruling follows a lawsuit from nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which called on the judge to enforce time-sensitive records requests and to grant a court order that would require DOGE to preserve them.
Cooper stopped short of granting CREW’s request to make materials public before Congress reconvened this week but agreed there was an urgent need to release them.
He called on the government to submit a report by March 20 with an estimate for the number of documents that apply to CREW’s requests.
“We’re grateful for Judge Cooper’s decision. Now more than ever, Americans deserve transparency in their government,” CREW executive director and chief counsel Donald Sherman said in a statement. “Despite efforts and claims to the contrary, the government cannot hide the actions of the US DOGE Service. We look forward to the expedited processing of our requests and making all the DOGE documents public.”
