A federal judge ordered on Monday (10) that the government’s personnel reduction team created by US President Donald Trump, and led by billionaire Elon Musk, made the records about his operations public, which he said were performed in “unusual confidentiality.”
District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington was next to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (Crew) government surveillance group when he found that the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) was probably an agency subject to the US Freedom of Information Law (FOIA).
The decision, the first of its kind, marked an early victory for advocates seeking to force Doge to become more transparent about his role in mass layoffs led in the federal workforce and the dismantling of government agencies by the Republican President’s administration.
The Trump administration argued that Doge, as an arm of the president’s executive office, was not subject to Foia, a law that allows the public to seek access to records produced by government agencies.
But Cooper, a nominee of former Democrat Barack Obama, said the doge was exercising much larger “independent authority” than other components of that office who are usually free of Foia.
Cooper said that “it seems to have the power not only of evaluating federal programs, but of reformulating them dramatically and even eliminating them wholesale,” a fact that the judge said the agency refused to refute.
He said his “operations so far have been marked by unusual confidentiality,” citing reports of the use of an external server by Doge, the refusal of his employees to identify with career employees and their use of the signal encrypted application to communicate.
Donald Sherman, Crew’s executive director and chief advisor, greeted the decision. “Now, more than ever, Americans deserve transparency in their government,” he said in a statement.
An White House employee in a statement said the judge has a “misunderstanding about how Doge works.” The employee said the White House expects Cooper to reverse “as soon as he correctly understands the doge structure.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
CREW began the process on February 20 after filing requests under Foia seeking information about DOGE’s operations, including communications such as e-mails and internal memory of the government.
Crew asked Cooper to order the records to be released by Monday, arguing that the public and congress needed information during the debate on government financing legislation that is expected to be approved by Friday to avoid partial government stoppage.
Cooper refused, but said that they must be produced in an expeditious manner, citing the need for timely information about the doge, given the “unprecedented” authority he was exercising.
The judge ordered the Trump government to file a status report by March 20 estimating the number of documents in question and ordered the parties to propose by March 27 a schedule for continuous production of documents.
Cooper also filed an order by instructing Doge to preserve the records, citing “the possibility that the representatives of the ground entities may not fully appreciate their obligations to preserve federal records.”
This content was originally published in a judge says that Doge de Musk should disclose “confidential” operations records on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
