A court has granted 14 states the right to obtain large amounts of information about Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Newsweek sought email comment on Thursday from DOGE and Elon Musk .
Why It Matters
The 14 states are seeking to show that DOGE is illegally laying off thousands of federal workers. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against Musk and DOGE since the start of Trump’s second term.
White House Senior Advisor to the President and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk departs the U.S. Capitol Building on March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC.
White House Senior Advisor to the President and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk departs the U.S. Capitol Building on March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
What To Know
On Wednesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan granted New Mexico and 13 other states the right to obtain documents and answers to questions about DOGE’s plans to trim federal agencies.
In mid-February, attorneys general from 14 states filed the lawsuit in a Washington, D.C. federal court, and it was randomly assigned to Chutkan, who had overseen President Donald Trump‘s election fraud case. The Justice Department ended that case after Trump was elected president in November, 2024.
The states are seeking a preliminary injunction against DOGE and to have its actions declared illegal under the Appointments Clause—the section of the U.S Constitution that mandates how people should be appointed to high federal office.
In their lawsuit, the states argue that Musk was illegally appointed and call for the court to stop DOGE’s drastic cuts across the federal government. The lawsuit states that DOGE has spread “chaos and confusion” across the U.S. and describes Musk as “an agent of chaos.”
Chutkan had denied that request on February 18, writing that she could not issue a temporary restraining order against Musk and DOGE “without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm” to the states.
It is this potential evidence that the states are seeking to obtain with a discovery request.
New Mexico and the 13 other Democratic-led states wrote in court documents that they are seeking “to confirm public reporting about Defendants’ conduct, show Defendants’ future plans, and illustrate the nature and scope of the unconstitutional and unlawful authority that Defendants are exercising and will continue to imminently exercise.”
They asked Chutkan to compel Elon Musk and DOGE to “comply with five requests for document production, six interrogatories, six requests for admission, and two depositions.”
In her Wednesday ruling, Chutkan noted that the disclosure request “generally concern DOGE’s and Musk’s conduct in four areas: (1) eliminating or reducing the size of federal agencies; (2) terminating or placing federal employees on leave; (3) cancelling, freezing, or pausing federal contracts, grants, or other federal funding; and (4) obtaining access, using, or making changes to federal databases or data management systems.”
She noted that the plaintiffs do not seek emails, text messages, or other electronic communication between DOGE staff.
The discovery requests are therefore “narrowly tailored to support their forthcoming motion for a preliminary injunction,” she wrote.
“The burden to Defendants is minimized by the narrow time period for responsive materials, the exclusion of electronic communications, explicitly exempting President Trump from the requests, extending Defendants’ time to respond” and not yet pinning the defendants to specific deposition time and conditions, she wrote.
The lawsuit has been filed by New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
What People Are Saying
New Mexico Democrat Attorney General Raúl Torrez wrote on Facebook on February 16: “I’m leading a landmark multistate lawsuit to stop Elon Musk’s unconstitutional power grab.”
“This is just the latest. Since Trump took office for a second term, I’ve challenged the federal funding freeze, filed suit to protect birthright citizenship, and defended funding for medical research.”
What Happens Next
Musk and DOGE are now legally obligated to hand over the materials from the four areas of DOGE’s work identified by the plaintiffs.
They also must answer the questions approved by the court, and attend depositions, which will greatly increase public understanding of DOGE’s internal operations.
DOGE and Musk may appeal to a higher federal court.