The Trump administration claims DOGE is exempt from disclosure requirements.
Published October 13, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a watchdog lawsuit seeking public records from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The high court on Tuesday intervened for the second time with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in a Washington lawsuit seeking access to DOGE records from the early activities of President Donald Trump’s second term. The Trump administration asked the court to hear the case.
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Last year, the high court blocked a district court’s order requiring the government to turn over DOGE-related records to CREW. The high court’s conservative majority concluded in June 2025 that U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s ruling ordering the documents was too broad.
CREW argues that because DOGE is a federal agency, it is subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Trump administration claims that DOGE is exempt from FOIA requirements as a presidential advisory agency.
Cooper ruled in CREW’s favor and ordered expedited processing of the group’s records requests. The appellate panel also sided with CREW.
The Trump administration claims the committee ignored the Supreme Court’s directive to consider separation of powers concerns and intruded on the president’s advisers’ “autonomy and confidentiality.”
“Subjecting advisory bodies to intrusive discovery raises the very concerns that Congress sought to avoid by excluding presidential advisory bodies from the reach of FOIA,” wrote attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice.
The administration also said the appellate court granted the plaintiffs permission to take a sworn deposition from Amy Gleason, acting DOGE director.
CREW said the appellate court fully complied with the Supreme Court’s previous order. The group also argues that the public has a right to know how DOGE supported the government’s overhaul of government operations in 2025.
“The undisputed facts in the public record, including statements by the President, confirm that[DOGE]exercised vast and independent powers throughout the federal government,” CREW’s attorneys wrote.
CREW attorney Nickel Sass said in a statement Tuesday that lower courts have uniformly ruled that DOGE is entitled to records that could help courts determine whether it is exercising the types of powers subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
“We will continue to pursue transparency on behalf of the American people. The American people have a right to know the details of the Trump administration’s efforts to unilaterally restructure the federal government,” Sass said in a statement.
DOGE announced tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts, but those claims were difficult for outside financial experts to verify.
According to the Government Accountability Office’s report, federal auditors found that some of the savings reported by DOGE related to contract, grant, and lease terminations were inaccurate, lacked supporting evidence, or included terminations that were already in progress at the time of DOGE’s formation.
