An important update on our legal strategy to gain access to DOGE records

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has thrown nearly the entire federal government into chaos with its sledgehammer cuts and haphazard directives.

And nearly all of their operations have been taking place behind closed doors with zero meaningful oversight from Congress.

Well, we’re about to blow the doors wide open at DOGE.

The Intercept is preparing a blizzard of Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover the documents we need to find out exactly what’s happening at DOGE, who’s in charge, and what laws they may be breaking — and if they refuse to comply, then we’re prepared to take them to court.

This could be one of our most challenging and consequential investigations ever, and we’re counting on your financial support to ensure that we have the legal and reporting firepower to get to the truth.

Will you donate $5 to help fund our investigations of Elon Musk and DOGE?

Government ethics watchdogs are sounding the alarm that Musk’s sweeping authority, combined with the lack of transparency and myriad conflicts of interest, create a perfect storm of potential corruption.

It’s not really even clear who’s in charge at DOGE. If Musk was officially appointed as an agency head, then he would be subject to various ethics rules.

So instead, the White House simply refused to identify the administrator until recently, when it named Amy Gleason, a former member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in Trump’s first term, as acting DOGE administrator.

But is Gleason really in charge, or is she simply a stand-in for Musk? And if so, what are the legal implications? And who, if anyone, should be held accountable for the tornado of chaos being created by the DOGE fiasco?

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the public has a right to see the documents and other information that will shed light on DOGE’s operations. But based on what we’ve seen so far, we have to expect major resistance to any FOIA request that Trump or Musk would rather ignore, which could mean a long and costly legal battle.

That’s why we’re asking our readers to chip in whatever you can to help ensure we have the resources to see this fight through.

Will you donate $5 to help fund our investigations of Elon Musk and DOGE?

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