Watchdog Effort to Obtain DOGE Records Can Proceed, Appeals Court Rules

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency must resume efforts to hand over internal documents about their operations to a nonpartisan watchdog group, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The order, issued by a three-judge panel in Washington, directs Mr. Musk’s team to answer questions and provide details the group requested under federal transparency laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act. The watchdog, the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had sued to force the secretive unit to comply with its public records requests.

Even simple details about Mr. Musk’s operations have been jealously guarded by the Trump administration. Officials have routinely declined to publicly identify DOGE members in court or document how the team has moved through the federal government, downsizing agencies, slashing grants and changing policy priorities.

While Mr. Musk has often portrayed the effort as a transparent “tech support” team, listing inefficiencies it has identified online, federal judges as well as groups suing the administration have complained that it more closely resembles an opaque task force with dubious legal authority to make the significant changes it has taken credit for.

Underlying the case is a deeper dispute about what exactly the Musk team does within the federal government, and whether court should treat it as a federal agency subject to the same requirements as others.

In March, a federal judge ruled that the DOGE team most likely is subject to those requirements, and ordered it to begin working with CREW to detail its operations and provide clarity about its relationship with federal agencies that have enacted drastic changes after meeting with DOGE’s analysts and allowing them to pore over federal databases.