WASHINGTON, October 14 — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) seeking public records about billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The high court’s conservative majority reined in a district court’s order for the government to produce DOGE-related records to CREW in June 2025, concluding that the U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled too broadly in ordering documents to be turned over.
CREW claims DOGE is a federal agency and therefore is subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Trump administration argues that DOGE is exempt from FOIA’s requirements as a presidential advisory body.
The case is expected to be heard in the coming months. DOGE was established by an executive order on January 20, 2025, and ceased operation on July 4, 2026, as scheduled. Its stated objective was to modernize information technology and maximize productivity within the federal government.
Members of DOGE filled influential roles within several federal agencies, where they obtained administrative access to information systems used in procurement and personnel management. DOGE personnel also assisted with immigration enforcement.
Reports indicated that DOGE accessed and copied public and classified data from government databases to private servers as part of its operational activities, prompting scrutiny regarding data handling and oversight. The White House has insisted on the lawfulness of DOGE’s activities, despite multiple federal judges rebuking certain actions as illegal or potentially unconstitutional. The role Musk had with DOGE remains unclear.
The White House asserted he was senior advisor to the president, denied he was making decisions, and named Amy Gleason as acting administrator. Trump insisted that Musk headed DOGE. A federal judge found him to be DOGE’s de facto leader, likely needing Senate confirmation under the Appointments Clause.
In May 2025, Musk announced plans to pivot away from DOGE. Musk left Washington on May 30, 2025, soon after his offboarding, along with lieutenant Steve Davis, top adviser Katie Miller, and general counsel James Burnham.
Trump had maintained his support for Musk until they clashed in June over passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. His administration reiterated its pledge to the DOGE objective, and Russell Vought said DOGE was being institutionalized, a claim that Scott Kupor corroborated in November 2025. DOGE has claimed to have saved hundreds of billions, although another government entity estimated it cost the government $21.7 billion.
Another independent analysis estimated that DOGE cuts will cost taxpayers $135 billion; the Internal Revenue Service predicted more than $500 billion in revenue loss due to “DOGE-driven” cuts. Journalists found billions of dollars in miscounting.
According to critics, DOGE redefined fraud to target federal employees and programs to build political support; budget experts said DOGE cuts were driven more by political ideology than frugality. Musk, DOGE, and the Trump administration have made multiple claims of having discovered significant fraud, many of which have not held up under scrutiny. According to the estimates of Brooke Nichols, DOGE cuts to foreign aid programs had led to some 300,000 deaths by May 2025, mostly of children.
By February 2026, when her counter that estimated the number of deaths was retired, the numbers were kept at the one-year mark from when the cuts began: 781,343 dead. The Supreme Court has exempted it from disclosure, although Musk has said that DOGE was transparent.
