CNN
—
A federal judge ruled Monday that the US Department of Government Efficiency is likely covered by the Freedom of Information Act, a federal transparency law that allows outsiders to obtain internal government records detailing agency conduct.
The new preliminary ruling from US District Court Judge Casey Cooper is a major win for watchdog groups and others seeking to scrutinize the activity of the Elon Musk-led initiative, which has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s drastic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy. However, the new order may not result in the immediate production of DOGE records sought by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group that brought the case, because Cooper’s ruling can be appealed.
In the meantime, Cooper has issued a preservation order requiring the administration to save the records that CREW was seeking, raising the specter of contempt if DOGE is not taking adequate steps to retain its records.
Cooper, an Obama appointee, said the Trump administration failed to rebut arguments by the challengers that DOGE – which was retrofitted by Trump onto a preexisting government IT entity known as the US Digital Service or USDS – was exercising “substantial independent authority” that put it under the umbrella of FOIA’s requirements.
Cooper’s said Trump’s DOGE-related executive orders had appeared to “endow USDS with substantial authority independent of the President,” and the judge pointed to public statements by Trump and Musk indicating “that USDS is in fact exercising substantial independent authority.”
The judge did not buy the claim that DOGE was playing merely an advisory role within the federal government, as he noted Musk’s extensive posting on social media bragging of the major changes DOGE had made, including with the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development.
“These statements and reports suggest that the President and USDS leadership view the department as wielding decision-making authority to make cuts across the federal government,” the judge said.
Even though some of the judge’s conclusions rested on media reports about DOGE’s activities, Cooper found it “meaningful that in its briefing and at oral argument, USDS has not contested any of the factual allegations suggesting its substantial independent authority.”
Cooper is not giving CREW everything it was seeking in the FOIA litigation. He rejected a request that the records the group seeks – including DOGE documents like internal memos, policy changes, ethics pledges and financial waivers – be turned over by Monday, ahead of Congress’ Friday government shutdown deadline. However, Cooper is commanding the administration to expedite the processing of that FOIA request and of a similar one submitted to the Office of Management and Budget.
