A federal judge has ordered Trump administration officials involved in Elon Musk’s “opaque” Department of Government Efficiency to testify under oath in one of the sprawling lawsuits seeking to block DOGE’s access to sensitive government databases.
Clarifying DOGE’s Actions
U.S. District Judge John Bates agreed Thursday that “very limited” efforts to question officials connected to DOGE would help clarify what exactly the group is doing and whether it poses the risks to sensitive data that government employees fear. Bates’ order will allow unions and liberal groups suing to question four officials: one from DOGE’s White House headquarters and one each from the Labor Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
First Step Towards Transparency
While the bureaucracy-slashing DOGE effort has sparked more than a dozen lawsuits, the order from Bates is the first that would force people involved in the project to answer questions from lawyers outside the government.
Depositions and Insights
Those depositions will be capped at eight hours in total, ruled Bates, a Washington-based appointee of President George W. Bush.
Neither Bates nor the unions and liberal groups that brought the suit specified which particular DOGE members will be questioned under oath. They will be selected by the Trump administration, but must be knowledgeable about the data security and access issues within the agencies at the center of the suit.
Seeking Facts Through Discovery
So far, the only insight about DOGE’s operations inside agencies like Labor and HHS have come from carefully crafted written statements filed in court by DOGE allies embedded across the government, and a handful of agency officials who work alongside them. Bates pointed to those statements as a reason to allow the depositions.
“It would be strange to permit defendants to submit evidence that addresses critical factual issues and proceed to rule on a preliminary injunction motion without permitting plaintiffs to explore those factual issues through very limited discovery,” Bates wrote.
Concerns and Questions
The Justice Department objected to any officials being questioned at this stage of the suit, but the judge said it was fair that the unions be given a chance to gather facts that would support their case.
The unions contend that Musk’s allies have been granted access to sensitive databases that contain private information about thousands of government employees. Bates denied their emergency effort to block DOGE’s access altogether, but agreed he had concerns about the operation and said he was open to demanding more details as the lawsuit advanced.
Further Proceedings
Bates’ order also permits a limited set of written questions to be submitted to the agencies targeted by the lawsuit. Those questions may “seek information about the extent of access to sensitive systems agencies have given [DOGE] employees, who at the agencies authorized such access, and any training [DOGE] employees received.
