Elon Musk speaking at 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference. Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: fac@firstamendmentcoalition.org
San Rafael, Calif. — The First Amendment Coalition and MSW Media today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. DOGE Service for its failure to respond to FOIA requests seeking correspondence between Elon Musk and DOGE staff.
Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk and DOGE have sought to remake the federal government through layoffs at dozens of agencies and have attempted to completely eliminate others, such as USAID. Yet DOGE itself, from how it is staffed to how it makes its decisions and carries out its actions, is largely a mystery. Attempts to uncover the how and why behind DOGE have been met with stonewalling.
“The American people have the right to know how the richest man in the world has come to wield such enormous power and influence within the federal government,” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. “The public deserves — and FAC is demanding — answers.”
On February 25, FAC submitted a FOIA request seeking all electronic communications between Musk and DOGE staff since January 20. DOGE never responded to the request, as required by law. Today’s lawsuit asks a court to order DOGE to answer the request and disclose the requested records.
In an earlier lawsuit against DOGE, government lawyers asserted that DOGE is not an agency covered by FOIA because it is a “component” of the Executive Office of the President that merely “reports to the White House Chief of Staff.” FAC’s lawsuit seeks to refute this claim, listing ample evidence that its actions are those of an agency with substantial authority independent of the president, and that Musk is in charge of DOGE.
MSW Media, Inc., of which Allison Gill (of the Mueller She Wrote, Jack, Daily Beans, and Unjustified podcasts) is the executive director, is the co-plaintiff in the case. Kel McClanahan of National Security Counselors represents FAC and MSW Media.
“Whether it’s discussing a bombing run in a Signal group or playing musical office suites in a vain attempt to avoid FOIA, the Trump administration has unequivocally demonstrated that they are pathologically allergic to accountability and transparency,” said McClanahan. “Our goal is to send a message for once and for all that running the federal government is not a game.”
Today’s lawsuit, MSW Media and First Amendment Coalition v. U.S. DOGE Service, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.