Elon Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) must comply with demands to disclose its internal records. In a ruling on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper wrote that the Department of Government Efficiency likely fell under the jurisdiction of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), adding that "the public will be irreparably harmed if the release of records is delayed indefinitely."

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by an ethics watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sued the Office of Government Ethics for failing to turn over documents related to communications between staff and federal agencies, organizational charts, financial disclosures and other records.

In his decision, Cooper took into account DOGE's "extraordinary secrecy" as it does not reveal the names of its members and reportedly uses the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate. He added that DOGE staff "are said to have recently joined the federal government and, to put it mildly, may not be very familiar with the federal government's record retention policies."

Judge Cooper has ordered the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to "expeditiously" provide documents requested by CREW. He concluded that DOGE "is likely to exercise substantially independent authority" compared with other agencies, which would likely make it subject to FOIA.

As the New York TimesAs reported, the Trump administration had previously attempted to classify DOGE as a presidential records entity, which would have allowed it to circumvent public records requests.

CREW executive director and chief counsel Donald Sherman said in a response to the ruling: "Despite the government's efforts and assertions to the contrary, it cannot conceal the actions of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. We look forward to expediting our request and making all DOGE documents public."