President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File).
A government ethics watchdog group implored a federal judge to order the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to produce records responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by next week, arguing that information on the “black box agency” and its operations are vital for Congress and the general public before the current continuing resolution expires next week.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the lawsuit against DOGE last month, accusing the pseudo-agency of unlawfully refusing to comply with its FOIA requests for records associated with the government group’s actions and ignoring repeated demands for DOGE to preserve its records under the Federal Records Act.
CREW requested expedited records and documents related to communications between Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staffers and individuals who were affiliated with DOGE prior to Trump’s inauguration, changes to the operations of the U.S. Digital Service, organizational charts and financial disclosures, and DOGE’s communications with federal agencies, which DOGE and the other plaintiffs have so far failed to turn over.
The Trump administration responded to the litigation by claiming that DOGE was not subject to FOIA laws due to the president’s designation of the entity as a “free-standing component of the Executive Office of the President.”
FOIA allows the public to obtain non-exempt information from executive branch agencies and departments that do not function “solely to advise and assist the President.”
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper on Friday, attorneys representing CREW asserted that it would suffer irreparable harm if the document request was not fulfilled by next week. The organization further asserted that based on news reports, the government’s own public statements, and DOGE’s own publications, it clearly wielded more than advisory authority.
CREW’s attorney argued that members of Congress lacked sufficient information on DOGE, its organizational structure, funding, and the agency’s authority before they could vote on funding the government on March 14.
“The nature of the influence DOGE has been wielding is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” CREW’s attorney told the court. “This newly formed, unscrutinized, black box agency is directing other agencies what to do and what not to do. They’re instructing agencies to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars in cancelled contracts and the firing of thousands of federal workers.”
The crux of the argument essentially came down to CREW’s contention that the public and members of Congress would be unable to appropriately weigh in on how much funding agencies should be given when DOGE could seemingly swoop in after the fact and stop the apportionment of appropriated funds.
The watchdog group also emphasized that since the government had submitted sworn declarations claiming that Elon Musk was not leading DOGE, President Donald Trump had repeatedly stated that the tech billionaire was calling the shots.
Later in the hearing, Cooper posed a hypothetical scenario to the government regarding the appropriations bill, asking the DOJ attorney how it might affect a legislator’s vote if they found out that Musk planned to “zero out” a particular agency without their knowledge ahead of the vote.
Attorneys from the Justice Department reiterated that DOGE’s function was “advisory only.” The government did not get into the merits of whether DOGE should be subject to FOIA requests, instead arguing that CREW would not suffer “irreparable harm” as required for a preliminary injunction because the relationship between the organization and the appropriations vote was “too attenuated.”
Cooper said he planned to make a decision “sooner rather than later” regarding CREW’s injunction request.
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