A U.S. conservation group
sued the Trump administration in a Washington, D.C. federal court on Thursday to reveal details about the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its apparent leader, billionaire Elon Musk.
"The public has every right to know what kind of rogue agency Elon Musk and his tech-bro army have created,"
said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement about the group's suit.
"Musk's wrecking ball outfit should be called the Department of Government Evisceration because he's destroying critical federal agencies that keep us and the environment safe and healthy," Hartl declared. "The reality is that rebuilding functioning federal agencies will cost far more in the long run than any trivial savings gained."
"The center and its members are deeply interested in, and affected by, how the stated mission for DOGE and its related activities could harm, undermine, or negate the center's long-standing efforts to protect the environment and the livability of our planet."
The center noted that its case "appears to be the first contending that DOGE itself is an 'agency' for purposes of" the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal law that gives the public—including reporters—the right to request government records.
As Musk and his minions have attempted to gut government agencies and obtained Americans' sensitive data, journalists and other observers have
sounded the alarm over difficulties accessing information about DOGE and its billionaire leader—whose companies have gotten at least $38 billion from the U.S. government since 2006, according toThe Washington Post.
Trump
announced just after his reelection that Musk, the richest person on Earth, would chair an initiative designed to slash federal spending and regulations. On his first day back in office, the Republican signed an executive order establishing the DOGE Service Temporary Organization and rebranding the United States Digital Service (USDS) as the U.S. DOGE Service.
A Trump official has since
claimed in a declaration to a federal court that Musk is neither the administrator nor an employee of USDS or the temporary organization—he is officially a White House Office employee serving as "a senior adviser to the president," allegedly with "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."
Given how those claims conflict with Trump and Musk's comments and behaviors over the past few months, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
launched an investigation last week and demanded answers from the White House by March 6.
The conservation group aims to reveal similar information: the identities of DOGE's workers and volunteers, meeting details, communications involving Musk's businesses, and directives from the White House. The complaint names Musk, DOGE, USDS, Amy Gleason—the acting administrator of those two entities,
according to the White House—and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The records that the center is requesting "are subject to FOIA, and their relevance is extremely time-sensitive given DOGE's ongoing efforts to refashion the federal government and workforce in fundamental ways with no or minimal transparency," the complaint states. "FOIA was designed to ensure that monumental and consequential undertakings such as this could not take place without transparency. Yet that is what is occurring as defendants are engaging in wholesale disregard for FOIA's pro-disclosure mandate."
"In the absence of judicial intervention, they will continue to do so," the suit warns. "Specifically, President Trump established DOGE to repeal, rescind, and otherwise eliminate various facets of the federal government in the name of cost-cutting."
"Given the substantial protections for air and water, wildlife and nature, climate, public lands, and the environment generally implemented through federal staff and regulations," the complaint adds, "the center and its members are deeply interested in, and affected by, how the stated mission for DOGE and its related activities could harm, undermine, or negate the center's long-standing efforts to protect the environment and the livability of our planet."
The filing follows the center's January suit against OMB seeking DOGE documents. The group said Thursday that "to date, the government has failed to provide any records in response to the center's Freedom of Information Act requests."
