Judge orders OPM to submit DOGE access report
A federal judge has ordered OPM to detail the level of access granted to “DOGE agents,” as well as whether they received proper training and vetting.
A federal judge has ordered a sweeping review into the access that Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, officials have gained into Office of Personnel Management’s IT systems.
In a preliminary injunction issued Friday, District Judge Denise Cote directed OPM to submit a report within two weeks that describes how the agency has ensured compliance with the Privacy Act when granting access to systems containing federal personnel data.
Within four weeks, Cote wants a “DOGE Access Report” detailing what level of access DOGE “agents” have for OPM systems that contain personally identifiable information. DOGE “agents” include employees of the U.S. DOGE Service detailed to OPM, and individuals employed by OPM who are detailed to other agencies to work on DOGE-related initiatives.
Cote’s definition of “DOGE agent” excludes high-level OPM officials, including acting OPM Director Charles Ezell, Chief Information Officer Gregory Hogan and Chief of Staff James Sullivan.
The latest ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by several federal employee unions challenging DOGE’s access to OPM systems. The unions allege OPM violated federal law by hastily granting DOGE agents broad access to systems that house data on millions of current and former federal employees. They argue OPM is putting federal employee data at risk of privacy and cybersecurity breaches.
During a late May hearing, Cote said filings in the lawsuit showed there was a “rushed, indeed chaotic granting of access” to sensitive OPM systems in the early days of the Trump administration.
In June, she ruled in favor of the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction.
“The government has defended this lawsuit by repeatedly invoking a mantra that it adhered to all established procedures and safeguards,” Cote wrote in her initial June 9 ruling. “It did not. Without a full-throated recognition that the law and established cybersecurity procedures must be followed, the risk of irreparable harm will continue to exist.”
But before finalizing the preliminary injunction, she gave both sides a chance to offer feedback on its terms.
Her ruling on Friday orders the DOGE Access Report to contain details on the type of access granted to each DOGE agent, the training they received to access sensitive systems, and the vetting they underwent, including for security clearances.
Cote’s order also acknowledges that several other reviews of DOGE data access at OPM are ongoing.
The Government Accountability Office is auditing DOGE’s access to systems at OPM and other agencies. In April, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said GAO is specifically looking at access to systems at OPM, the Social Security Administration and Treasury.
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“We’re looking at the digital footprint within each of these major systems across government,” Dodaro said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. “So we’ll have a better idea about what impact DOGE’s access has had on the data systems, and whether there’s been any information input into the system or taken out of the system.”
OPM’s Office of Inspector General is also reviewing access to the agency’s data systems in response to a request from Congress.
And Cote’s ruling additionally points to the OPM OIG’s annual audit to determine compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act.
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