DOEGE: The DOGE Expansion Campaign in Musk’s Office of Personnel Management and at the FBI’s Quantico Academies

Multiple agency sources told WIRED last week that several of Musk’s lieutenants had been granted access to key computer systems controlled by the GSA, an independent agency tasked by Congress with overseeing federal buildings and providing equipment, supplies, and IT support across the government.

Under the 2002 E-Government Act, agencies are required to perform privacy assessments prior to making “substantial changes to existing information technology” when handling information “in identifiable form.” OPM did not have the capabilities to email the entire workforce from a single email account prior to installation of the server.

WIRED reported last week that the office of personnel management had been taken over by Musk’s outfit. Many of the young engineers it uses are former interns or associated with Musk-aligned companies, according to public records.

The Trump administration began a radical campaign last week aimed at inducing members of the federal workforce to leave their jobs ahead of threatened reductions. The effort is spearheaded by Elon Musk, leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force that has effectively seized control of several federal agencies and sensitive government systems with apparent clearance from the White House.

In a striking example of the policy in action, an image surfaced last week of a wall being painted over at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quantico, Virginia, academy due to it listing “diversity” among the bureau’s core values. The FBI no longer considers diversity to be part of its core values according to an email obtained by Mother Jones.

A WIRED staffer complains that pronouns are wiped from employees’ email signatures in the wake of the first day of Trump’s presidency

A staffer at the United States Agency for International Development says that the ability to list pronouns was stopped last week in the aftermath of the first day of Trump’s presidency. A GSA staffer says pronouns were wiped from employees’ email signatures after hours on Friday and were also no longer visible in Slack, the workplace messaging app.

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OPM communications director McLaurine Pinover pointed to a January 29 memo that instructed agencies to prevent the use of features that prompt users for their pronouns.

WIRED confirmed various automated efforts with employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the US Department of Agriculture.

OPM would have to disconnected the server if the motion is granted. As a consequence, the Trump administration’s plans to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce would likely face delays. The email account linked to the server—[email protected]—is currently being used to gather information from federal workers accepting buyouts under the admin’s “deferred resignation program,” which is set to expire on February 6.

A Temporary Restraining Order against the Organization of a Cyber-Security Server from the Fifth Floor of the OPM Headquarters

“Under the law, a temporary restraining order is an extraordinary remedy,” notes National Security Counselors’ executive director, Kel McClanahan. This is an extraordinary situation.

The balance of equity doctrine was used by the courts to weigh the burdens and costs of both parties before issuing a restraining order. In this case, the injunction would cause no hardship to the government. The administration could simply continue implementing the resignation program through other channels, since February 6 is anarbitrary deadline.

The motion claims that OPM allowed unknown individuals to simply bypassed its systems and security protocols in order to be able to communicate directly with them. The sole purpose of the new systems was to be quick.

A copy of the motion, filed in the DC District Court by National Security Counselors, a Washington-area public-interest law firm, was obtained by WIRED exclusively in advance. Musk had installed people with connections to some of his companies in OPM’s top offices.

An attorney for two federal workers, Jane Does 1 and 2, filed a motion this morning arguing that the server is potentially exposing vast quantities of government staff’s personal information to hostile foreign adversaries because of its continued operation.

Federal employees are seeking a temporary restraining order in order to stop the alleged illegal operation of a server from the fifth floor of the OPM headquarters in Washington, DC.