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Trump administration officials are to be examined under oath for the functioning of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as part of a lawsuit by government worker unions aimed at stopping the clandestine cost-cutting unit from penetrating federal agency systems, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
In Washington, US District Judge John Bates determined that the unions are allowed to interrogate four individual officials, one of whom works directly at DOGE, along with one each from the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the entire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The order did not specify the subjects of the inquiry.
The judge is deciding whether or not to grant a preliminary injunction that would prohibit DOGE from accessing the agency systems while the lawsuit brought by the unions is ongoing.
Bates ruled that the depositions, which cannot exceed a total of eight hours, must be more concerned with DOGE's organizational design, the scope and responsibilities of its staff and employees, the level of their access to agency systems, and measures taken to provide security and privacy.
US Justice Department lawyers had been against the unions' request for depositions. The Justice Department did not respond to the inquiry.
Bates, who was nominated by the republican president George W. Bush, remarked that the government had provided documents with contradictory details regarding DOGE's activities, which brought real uncertainty on whether it was in fact a government body.
Bates stated, “It would be rather odd to allow defendants to adduce evidence covering crucial factual matters and then move to make a determination on a preliminary injunction motion without allowing plaintiffs to test those factual matters through quite constrained discovery.”
Most of DOGE’s activities were conducted in a veil of secrecy. Elon Musk, the billionaire who had fettered his allegiance to president Donald Trump, has served as the public figure for the department and has boasted his authority on the aggressive budgetary cuts he inflicted on the federal departments, however, the lawyers of the department claimed in court that Musk does not head the department.
Earlier in the month, The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations instituted proceeding against the Labor Department seeking to prevent DOGE from obtaining access to the department’s systems which they argued could allow Musk to obtain sensitive information regarding the probes into his companies. At the onset of the case, Bates decided not to make a temporary decision that restricted him from blocking the access.
This later developed into a case which worked not only against the target department but also added other unions as claimants.
