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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to set aside a judge's order requiring Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to answer questions and disclose documents about its operations.
District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington ordered DOGE to turn over some records to the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, after finding that DOGE was likely a government agency covered by the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Cooper also said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was entitled to question DOGE's Acting Administrator Amy Gleason at a deposition. A federal appeals court declined on May 14 to put Cooper's order on hold.
President Donald Trump created DOGE in an executive order on Jan. 20, the day he began his second White House term.
In seeking an emergency stay from the Supreme Court, Solicitor General John Sauer said Cooper's "extraordinarily overbroad and intrusive" order would distract DOGE from its mission to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
He also called the order "an untenable affront to separation of powers," and said the government would likely succeed in showing that DOGE is a White House body exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, which lets the public review government records.
"This court has rejected similar fishing expeditions into sensitive executive-branch functions, and it should not allow this one to proceed," Sauer wrote.
