Judge orders Musk and his team to turn over records and answer questions

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington has ordered Elon Musk and operatives involved with his Department of Government Efficiency to hand over documents and answer questions about its role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs.

The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday that the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of 14 Democratic state attorneys general challenging Musk’s authority — had demonstrated a clear need to shed light on the inner workings of Musk’s team. It was the first time a judge has ordered Musk’s division be subject to discovery.

In the weeks after Musk’s team fanned out across federal agencies demanding access to federal offices and databases, lawyers seeking to stop the group’s advances have been forced to rely on news reports and anecdotal evidence about what, exactly, Musk’s team has been doing.

In many cases, federal judges have grown frustrated by the inability of the government’s own lawyers to answer straightforward questions about what data Musk’s associates have viewed, or to what extent the group had directly spearheaded recent downsizing efforts. In filings in another case, the government has also downplayed Musk’s role, claiming he was not officially the group’s leader.

The group of states had asked Chutkan to grant the request to let them probe Musk’s team for information in order to confirm details about its operations and its future plans, and to “illustrate the nature and scope of the unconstitutional and unlawful authority” they said Musk has so far exercised.

Chutkan agreed, writing in an opinion that “the requests seek to identify DOGE personnel and the parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority — a question central to Plaintiffs’ claims.”

The order Wednesday was more limited than the states’ slightly more ambitious request, which included a demand for two members of Musk’s team to sit for depositions — an ask Chutkan denied. But the order still requires Musk and his office to provide a broad array of information about its engagement with federal agencies, employees, contracts, grants and databases within three weeks.

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