US courts are foiling efforts by the Trump administration to keep under wraps information about the Department of Government Efficiency and the role that
A New York federal judge last week forced the government to reveal the names of DOGE employees and contractors. Earlier this month, a Maryland judge ruled Musk can’t be shielded from questions about the dissolution of the
Musk, who poured millions of dollars into President
The administration faced a wave of lawsuits from the start of Trump’s second term seeking to stop or slow down DOGE’s access to government systems and records with sensitive financial or personal data. While many of those cases are over, legal fights have lingered over transparency and whether Musk and DOGE-affiliated staff overstepped.
As judges grapple with whether what DOGE did was lawful, they’ve overruled the administration’s opposition to sharing information with plaintiffs that sued.
“You really are seeing an unwillingness from the government to shed any type of light or any type of accountability for what happened during that time,” said Tianna Mays, legal director of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is representing challengers in the US aid agency fight in Maryland.
Read More:
In a suit over DOGE access to
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement that “DOGE assisted in conducting unprecedented and historic levels of deregulation in the federal government and this ongoing and invasive witch-hunt to protect the federal bureaucracy at the expense of the American taxpayer is a shameful abuse of the judiciary.”
Although the administration dramatically scaled down the DOGE project by the end of last year, lawsuits contesting the spending cuts and firings — and Musk’s authority — have persisted.
On Feb. 17, the government disclosed the roster of DOGE staff from a peak period early last year in a pair of lawsuits challenging canceled grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Justice Department lawyers argued the full list wasn’t relevant, and that individuals could face “harm or harassment” if their identities became public.
‘Big Secret’
US District Judge
“Defendants ask the court to treat the identity of every individual who worked at or with DOGE as a Big Secret,” McMahon wrote. She also rejected the government’s effort to withhold a collection of documents as legally privileged.
In Maryland, the Justice Department is appealing a judge’s Feb. 4 ruling that “extraordinary circumstances justify” making Musk and two former top officials available for depositions in the US aid agency litigation. The government asked a federal appeals court to rule by March 2, and recently alerted the judges that the plaintiffs took steps to schedule the first deposition with a former agency official on March 5.
There’s still active litigation over whether DOGE must give up its records to the public under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department
“Regardless of DOGE’s current status, the public deserves complete transparency,” said
Musk Phone Records
In another DOGE records fight, US District Chief Judge
The Justice Department has asked Boasberg, appointed by former President Barack Obama, to reconsider part of his order directing government lawyers to question US senators about their communications with Musk, citing “considerable separation-of-powers concerns.”
This week, the department told Boasberg it sent a letter to Transportation Secretary
Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, which represents the challengers, said media reports about what happened behind the scenes at DOGE represent the “tip of the iceberg.”
“The things that they did will have ramifications for years and we can’t fix that unless we know about it,” he said.
(Updates with timing on USAID deposition.)
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Steve Stroth, Elizabeth Wasserman
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.