Trump asks Supreme Court to shut down 'intrusive' probe of DOGE

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step in and shut down what the government called a “sweeping, intrusive” legal discovery process against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying a lower court has turned the law on its head.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the DOGE is supposed to be exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests. But he said U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has ordered DOGE to answer probing questions about its operations anyway.

“That order turns FOIA on its head,” Mr. Sauer said. “And that order clearly violates the separation of powers, subjecting a presidential advisory body to intrusive discovery and threatening the confidentiality and candor of its advice.”

He sought a stay of the lower court’s discovery order, which would block the scrutiny while lower courts continue to examine the status of DOGE.

The office has been President Trump’s internal affairs division for the federal bureaucracy, roaming through government agencies and demanding data and documents to try to suggest cuts and changes to operations.

Both it and Mr. Musk, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump and putative head of DOGE, have been subject to a tangle of lawsuits about their activities, including their access to data and whether they were the force behind controversial decisions.

Judges have divided on those questions.

The case now before the justices goes to the heart of what the DOGE is, and whether it wields any power or acts as an advisory panel only.

The case was brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is seeking to use FOIA to pry into DOGE’s operations.

“While DOGE continues to attempt to fight transparency at every level of justice, we look forward to making our case that the Supreme Court should join the District Court and Court of Appeals in allowing discovery to go forward,” said CREW Vice President Jordan Libowitz.

CREW, in its court filings, said it needs to know more about DOGE’s operations to say whether the office is purely advisory.

CREW says the DOGE knew it was facing legal discovery in the case and should have been prepared.

But Mr. Sauer said DOGE is like the White House’s chief of staff or national security advisor. It can make recommendations to the president or Cabinet agencies, but it has no independent decision-making power.

He said CREW — and lower courts — are conflating DOGE’s “persuasive force of its recommendations” with actual power.

Judge Cooper has ordered the DOGE to turn over documents and answer questions about its employees and access to government systems, and to make Amy Gleason, the acting DOGE administrator, sit for a deposition.

“Nullifying FOIA’s solicitude for presidential advisors and ordering roving discovery into their recommendations and advice represents an untenable affront to the separation of powers,” Mr. Sauer told the high court.