Judge rules DOGE likely subject to public records requests, says department operating in ‘unusual secrecy’

The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, is likely subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal judge ruled Monday, noting that the newly formed department had been run in “unusual secrecy.”

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, sided with the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that DOGE does not have to respond to public records requests.

The administration claimed that DOGE is an arm of the Executive Office of the President, making it not subject to FOIA requests, which allow the public to request access to records produced by government agencies that had not previously been disclosed.

Cooper ruled that DOGE exercises “substantial independent authority” much greater than the other parts of the executive office that are usually exempt from the FOIA law.

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A judge ruled that DOGE, led by Elon Musk, is likely subject to FOIA. (AP)

The ruling could force DOGE to become more transparent about its role in the administration’s mass firings of the federal workforce, as well as its dismantling of government agencies and decisions to cancel contracts.

“Canceling any government contract would seem to require substantial authority—and canceling them on this scale certainly does,” Cooper wrote.

The judge said DOGE “appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale,” which he said the department declined to refute.

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The Trump administration has claimed that DOGE is an arm of the Executive Office of the President and, therefore, is not subject to FOIA. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Cooper also said its “operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy,” citing reports about DOGE’s use of an outside server, its employees’ refusal to identify themselves to career officials and their use of the encrypted app Signal to communicate.

The watchdog filed the lawsuit on Feb. 20 after filing FOIA requests seeking further information on DOGE’s operations, including communications like internal government emails and memos.

The group had asked Cooper to order DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget to release the records by Monday, arguing that the public and Congress needed the information during the debate over government funding legislation that must be passed by Friday to avert a partial government shutdown, but the judge declined to set a Friday deadline to produce the records.

Judge Christopher Cooper said DOGE’s “operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy.” (Getty Images)

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“Unfortunately for CREW, it satisfies none of the factors entitling it to preliminary relief ordering production of its OMB requests by today’s date,” Cooper wrote.

Instead, the judge ordered for the records to be produced on a “rolling basis as soon as practicable,” saying voters and Congress deserve timely information on DOGE given the “unprecedented” authority it was exercising to reshape the government.

This case is one of several lawsuits targeting the administration’s argument that DOGE is not subject to FOIA requests, but the other cases are still in earlier stages.

Reuters contributed to this report.