The federal judge called the Department of Government Efficiency’s work “opaque” as he ordered an official to shed more light on its activity and structure.
A federal judge Thursday ordered at least one official from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to testify and provide documents in response to a lawsuit against the Trump administration by the American Federation of Labor and other unions.
It will be the first time someone involved with DOGE has been required to answer questions under oath from an attorney outside the government, potentially providing new insights into the operations of an organization that U.S. District Judge John Bates of Washington, D.C., characterized as “opaque” in his order.
The unions that filed the lawsuit are seeking to block DOGE from accessing Labor Department data, arguing that access to such sensitive information systems would violate the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
In his ruling, Bates said the request for information “will not overly burden” the DOGE official tasked with responding to the order.
“The written discovery largely seeks only individuals’ identities, dates, and names of systems, as well as documents that defendants’ own declarations have referenced,” he wrote.
Bates also granted a request by the unions to hold four depositions with staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Labor Department and DOGE.
It’s unclear how much, if any, of those depositions will become public, but Bates said the unions will be limited to a total of eight hours for the four depositions.
Bates signaled a particular interest in the structure of DOGE and the scope of its authority, factors he said are critical in determining “whether its employees are permitted by the Privacy Act to view individual information.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
Musk and DOGE have been the subject of more than 20 lawsuits, including one that directly accuses the organization of violating federal laws requiring transparency.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to compel DOGE and the Office and Management and Budget to respond to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act, which enables anyone to request federal government records, with some exceptions. The nonprofit group said in the suit that it’s seeking “records regarding, among other matters, the staffing, calendars, and communications of the renamed and reformed United States Digital Service now the United States DOGE Service (DOGE).”
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Congressional Republicans are also seeking greater transparency at DOGE. Senate Republicans pushed Wednesday for more insight into the organization’s work at a meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
The Trump administration has fiercely rejected the notion that DOGE lacks transparency, pointing to posts on the Musk-owned X platform, as well as to its website, which features what it calls “receipts” of the contracts DOGE is reviewing and an account of its purported savings.
Several of those receipts, however, have been proved inaccurate, and much of the work, staffing and structure of DOGE remains muddled, along with its leadership.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to Musk as being in charge of DOGE, but the White House said Tuesday that a little-known official, Amy Gleason, holds the title of acting DOGE administrator, suggesting she was in charge.
The labor groups suing DOGE said in their initial filing that the “highly-sensitive data” the organization’s officials are seeking to access include “medical and benefits information about all federal workers with worker compensation” and “the identities of vulnerable workers who have sought the Department’s protection” in wage disputes and occupational safety complaints.
They added that DOGE would have access to “information regarding investigations of Mr. Musk’s corporate interests and the sensitive trade secret information held by the Department,” raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
Trump has defended Musk amid the growing backlash. At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, at which Musk spoke more than any Cabinet member, Trump stood by Musk while acknowledging some of the criticism directed at him.
“He’s sacrificing a lot and getting a lot of praise,” Trump said. “But he’s also getting hit. And we would expect that, and that’s the way it works.”
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