The person the White House identified last month as the leader of DOGE — despite public evidence that Elon Musk is calling the shots — has been working simultaneously at the Department of Health and Human Services since February.
The Trump administration acknowledged Amy Gleason’s dual role in a court filing the Justice Department initially attempted to submit under seal, until a judge ordered its public release this week. The filing shows that Gleason, despite claiming responsibility as DOGE’s leader, was detailed to HHS last month and formally hired by the department as a “consultant/expert” on March 4, while retaining her status as a DOGE employee as well.
The Dual Responsibilities
Gleason’s work at HHS, while purportedly also leading DOGE, came during some of DOGE’s busiest and most chaotic weeks, when the agency was overseeing the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and helping slash jobs and personnel across the federal government. The White House identified her as administrator on Feb. 25, after weeks of refusing to say who held the top role at the office.
Gleason and the Trump administration did not disclose her split role despite numerous questions from federal judges fielding dozens of lawsuits against DOGE related to its chain of command and whether Musk was exerting an unconstitutional level of authority over the operation.
U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered the release of the document showing that Gleason signed on as an HHS staffer in part, he said, because Gleason’s dual role raised questions about whether DOGE embeds across the federal government might share sensitive data outside their designated agencies. Bates is presiding over a lawsuit questioning whether DOGE poses a risk to sensitive data in the Departments of Labor, HHS and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
Conflicting Statements and Allegations
Tuesday’s public acknowledgment adds to a tangle of conflicting statements from the Trump administration about who is really running DOGE and whether Gleason herself is more of a figurehead for Musk, who President Donald Trump has repeatedly described as DOGE’s leader. It’s unclear what Gleason’s specific duties are at HHS.
Last week, Gleason filed a five-page sworn statement in a separate court case describing her role as DOGE’s “full-time” administrator (referring to it as USDS, the United States DOGE Service) while omitting any mention of her work for HHS.
Legal Scrutiny and Implications
The new filings are certain to draw scrutiny from federal judges evaluating whether DOGE’s effort to slash the federal bureaucracy and spending has violated laws and constitutional limits. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled Tuesday that Musk appeared to be functionally in charge of DOGE even after the White House said Gleason was its administrator.
Without identifying Gleason by name, Trump administration lawyers told Bates last week that she was among three DOGE officials who recently experienced a “change in status” after DOGE ended its practice of loaning, or “detailing,” employees to agencies. Those agencies have instead retained those individuals as “direct hire” employees, a change aimed at resolving privacy concerns resulting from the administrative structure.
Spokespeople for the White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Gleason’s role.
Gleason has an extensive background in health care consulting. Prior to her government service, which began toward the end of the Biden administration, she worked as chief product officer at Nashville health care firm Russell Street Ventures, with previous stints at the health technology companies Allscripts, now known as Veradigm, and CareSync, according to her LinkedIn profile.
