Defending the DOGE-Trump Illusion: Implications for the Future of the U.S. Government and the Work of the Department of Justice

The EFF and two unions filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of breaching a federal privacy law by allowing employees of theDOGE to access information on millions of government workers.

He said that when it comes to questions about conflicts of interest, “you have to look at the individual contract,” adding, “I’m not the one, you know, filing the contract. Someone will put the contract on the table, or it’s a group of people.

President Trump and CEO of Musk appeared together from the Oval Office to explain their plans to limit spending and change the federal government.

There are several legal challenges to the DOGE and their attempts to dismantle federal agencies. Others target the Treasury Department for allowing access to its sensitive payments system, and another has sought to halt the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from being thrown in the “wood chipper,” as Musk has said. While the cases are in the courts, the Democrats find it hard to slow down what they call an illegal coup and the Trump administration has already been reported to be tolerant of disobeying court orders.

The order is in response to a lot of moves by the Trump administration towards Musk’s work. In the three weeks since Trump’s inauguration, Musk has taken drastic measures to cut billions in spending and shut down the work of some government institutions like the Agency for International Development. The moves have prompted a cascade of legal challenges and sparked uncertainty among federal workers as they await additional actions by the DOGE effort.

The changes do not apply to military personnel, according to the order, and allow exemptions for positions related to “national security, homeland security, or public safety responsibilities.”

Tuesday’s order provides new details on how government agencies will work with DOGE to reduce the size of the federal workforce, and calls on the heads of federal agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force.” The order did not specify a range of how many workers may be affected and lose jobs.

Trump said that the DOGE program had already resulted in the discovery of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse and that the final tally could reach as high as a trillion dollars. The president and Musk didn’t give any details on how they arrived at the estimates.

Their appearance came as Trump signed an executive order providing new guidance for federal agencies on the implementation of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, which he and Musk characterized as excessive government spending.

February 11th is a correction. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified President Donald Trump as one of the defendants in the lawsuit. He isn’t a named as a defendants.

The White House will go to court to fight these battles and will expect to be vindicated, according to the White House Press Secretary. The American people gave the President a historic mandate to govern and so he has the right to do so.

The DOGE lawsuit over the FOIA hacking scandal: defending the DOGE staffers against the Trump–Delayed Resignation

Increased access to OPM information could create new vulnerabilities for that data, experts fear. Over 20 million people’s sensitive information was compromised in a database hack at the OPM.

The OPM was sued over the deferred resignation offer of the Trump administration, which had not been appropriated by Congress. The deadline for federal workers to decide to take the offer was delayed, pending further consideration by the court.

DOGE lacks “a lawful and legitimate need for such access” to OPM files, the groups allege. They are asking the federal court in New York to stop DOGE staffers from using information that they illegally accessed. They also want the court to order any copies of data unlawfully accessed to be destroyed.

He is a policy reporter at The Verge and he covers Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She was covering tech policy at CNBC for 5 years.