DOGE’s ‘operations thus far have been marked by unusual secrecy,’ Judge Christopher Cooper wrote

The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, is likely subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal judge ruled Monday, noting that the newly formed department had been run in “unusual secrecy.”

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, sided with the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that DOGE does not have to respond to public records requests.

The administration claimed that DOGE is an arm of the Executive Office of the President, making it not subject to FOIA requests, which allow the public to request access to records produced by government agencies that had not previously been disclosed.

Cooper ruled that DOGE exercises “substantial independent authority” much greater than the other parts of the executive office that are usually exempt from the FOIA law.

The ruling could force DOGE to become more transparent about its role in the administration’s mass firings of the federal workforce, as well as its dismantling of government agencies and decisions to cancel contracts.

“Canceling any government contract would seem to require substantial authority—and canceling them on this scale certainly does,” Cooper wrote.