A federal judge in the nation’s capital has ordered the Elon Musk-led Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) to provide documents requested by a government watchdog group under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which the Trump administration claimed did not apply to the quasi-governmental agency.
In a 37-page decision handed down Monday in the case of government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found that DOGE — referred to in the ruling as the U.S. DOGE Service, or USDC — was “operating with unusual secrecy,” and that, without an order to receive the requested documents, plaintiffs would likely suffer serious harm.
At a hearing on Friday, CREW’s attorneys argued that members of Congress did not have enough information about DOGE, its organizational structure, funding, and authority before voting on government funding on March 14.
The judge generally agreed with CREW.
“Finding that USDS is likely covered by FOIA and that the public would be irreparably harmed by an indefinite delay in unearthing the records CREW seeks, the Court will order USDS to process CREW’s request on an expedited timetable and, after receiving proposals on a production schedule, to begin producing documents on a rolling basis as soon as practicable,” the ruling reads.
Cooper observed that since Trump took office, DOGE’s actions “have proceeded remarkably swiftly.”
According to the Judge:
In the less than two months since President Trump’s inauguration, USDS has reportedly caused 3% of the federal civilian workforce to resign, shuttered an entire agency, cut billions of dollars from the federal budget, canceled hundreds of government contracts, terminated thousands of federal employees, and obtained access to vast troves of sensitive personal and financial data. USDS appears able to do this in part because of its access to many agency’s IT systems, which help the department carry out its objectives at warp speed. But the rapid pace of USDS’s actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities. That is especially so given the secrecy with which USDS has operated.
According to Cooper, this “secrecy” included keeping the name “USDS Administrator” Amy Gleason out of the public eye until late February and not disclosing any information about other DOGE personnel.
“[T]he authority exercised by USDS across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented,” the court’s ruling stated. “All of these factors support the Court’s conclusion that a years-long delay in processing the USDS Request would result in irreparable harm.
Cooper also explained why DOGE was subject to FOIA, despite the Trump administration’s claims that DOGE was not an independent agency but rather a part of the executive branch.
Citing examples such as an executive order giving DOGE “the authority to implement the DOGE Agenda, [and] not just to advise the President in doing so,” as well as concluding that DOGE was behind the effort to close USAID and carry out “mass firings” across government agencies.
The judge determined that, “on this preliminary record, CREW will likely succeed in demonstrating that USDS wields the requisite substantial independent authority” to qualify for FOIA.
From the judge (citations omitted):
USDS also claimed to have eliminated 104 DEI-related contracts with the federal government, saving $1 billion, and saving another $900 million through the termination of 89 of the Department of Education’s contracts. Canceling any government contract would seem to require substantial authority — and canceling them on this scale certainly does. Again, USDS reportedly is leading the charge on these actions, not merely advising others to carry them out. From these reports, the Court can conclude that USDS likely has at least some independent authority to identify and terminate federal employees, federal programs, and federal contracts. Doing any of those three things would appear to require substantial independent authority; to do all three surely does.
Cooper did not grant CREW everything it sought, specifically, the judge did not order that the documents be delivered by Monday, as CREW had requested.
“CREW has not established that it is entitled to disclosure by a date certain, however,” the court’s ruling stated. “The Court will therefore deny CREW’s request for an order directing OMG and USDS to produce records by today.”
Cooper also directed agencies to “preserve all records that may be responsive to CREW’s FOIA requests.”
CREW filed the lawsuit against DOGE in February, accusing the pseudo-agency of illegally refusing to comply with FOIA requests for records related to the government group’s actions and ignoring repeated requests for DOGE to preserve its records under the Federal Records Act.
CREW requested expedited records and documents pertaining to communications between Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staffers and individuals 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 yet to turn over.
The Trump administration responded to the lawsuit by claiming that DOGE was exempt from FOIA laws because the president designated the entity as a “free-standing component of the Executive Office of the President.”
FOIA enables the public to obtain non-exempt information from executive branch agencies and departments that do not serve “solely to advise and assist the President.”
“We’re grateful for Judge Cooper’s decision,” CREW said in a statement posted on its website Monday. “More than ever, Americans deserve transparency in government.
Despite efforts and claims to the contrary, the government cannot conceal the actions of the US DOGE Service. We look forward to having our requests processed quickly and all DOGE documents made public.”
