Utopia Talk / Politics / Trump wants to keep "DOGE" secret

murder Member	Wed May 21 19:26:15 Trump administration asks Supreme Court to keep DOGE records secret The appeal to the high court comes in a FOIA lawsuit filed by a watchdog group. The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block an effort to open the inner workings of the secretive DOGE cost-cutting effort to public scrutiny. The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Wednesday urging the high court to put a hold on a judge’s orders giving a watchdog group access to documents detailing firings, grant terminations and other actions proposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which was overseen by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Solicitor General John Sauer is also asking the Supreme Court to block a deposition of the obscure official the Trump administration has identified as the leader of the budget-cutting drive: DOGE administrator Amy Gleason. The appeal is the latest in more than a dozen expedited requests the administration has brought to the Supreme Court in the first four months of President Donald Trump’s second term. The myriad requests have sought the justices’ quick intervention to block preliminary lower-court rulings on everything from Trump’s immigration agenda to his layoff plans for federal workers. One other emergency appeal pending before the justices also relates to DOGE: a bid by the administration to give DOGE access to sensitive Social Security data. Wednesday’s appeal comes in a case in which Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is suing under the Freedom of Information Act to seek records about DOGE’s operations. The Trump administration contends that DOGE, formally known as the U.S. DOGE Service, is exempt from FOIA because DOGE only provides advice to the president and federal agency officials and has no independent decision-making authority. However, in a series of rulings beginning in March, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found there were strong indications that DOGE was actually directing cuts and layoffs at numerous federal agencies. That substantive operational role suggests DOGE’s activities fall under the Freedom of Information Act, the judge wrote. Cooper ordered DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget to begin turning over records responsive to CREW’s FOIA requests and also allowed the watchdog group to conduct fact-finding under a legal process known as discovery. Cooper’s discovery orders allow the group to obtain documents from DOGE and conduct a deposition in which Gleason would have to answer questions under oath. Cooper hasn’t yet ruled on any specific exemptions DOGE or OMB may claim to keep secret information contained in the records. In urging the Supreme Court to lift Cooper’s orders, Sauer argued that they violate the separation of powers and threaten the confidentiality of advice provided to the president. Cooper and several other judges have suggested DOGE has kept its operations intentionally opaque, part of an effort to outrun legal scrutiny amid its rapid-fire efforts to dramatically reshape the federal workforce and slash programs disfavored by the Trump administration. It took more than a month for the White House to identify Gleason as the purported “administrator” of DOGE, despite clear indications — and public pronouncements by Trump himself — that Musk steered the operation. And small bands of DOGE affiliates have been dispatched to agencies across the federal government with unclear mandates, vetting and lines of authority. Courts have intervened to slow or halt DOGE’s access to sensitive systems in the U.S. Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Social Security Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development. A judge Monday ruled that DOGE’s takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace was illegal and declared it null and void. But significant details about DOGE’s structure and leadership remain murky. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused Cooper’s orders last month at the Trump administration’s request, but another panel of the same court ruled last week that his orders could proceed. Sauer’s appeal argues that the fact-finding Cooper has permitted into DOGE’s operations and influence gives CREW much of the same information it is seeking in the FOIA lawsuit, even though the process the judge authorized is aimed at determining whether DOGE is subject to FOIA in the first place. The Trump administration placed DOGE in the Executive Office of the President. Some of its components, like OMB, have been ruled subject to FOIA, while others are beyond the reach of the transparency statute. The relief Sauer is seeking from the Supreme Court could delay many of the disclosures about DOGE for months or even a year or more, as the administration seeks to add the case to the high court’s so-called merits docket. That would likely result in arguments late this year or early next year and a decision by June 2026. A spokesperson for CREW said the group will urge the justices to permit the group to probe DOGE’s activities. “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,” spokesperson Jordan Libowitz said. http://www...ourt-doge-foia-appeal-00362263
The Zero Identity Member	Wed May 21 21:09:32 What are they trying to hide. I thought this was the "transparent" agency!
murder Member	Thu May 22 06:49:45 What agency? According to Trump they are just advisors. Lots of federal workers who were menaced and physically assaulted should sue the fuck out of all these so called advisors.
williamthebastard Member	Thu May 22 07:07:08 And Elon wants to keep his political financing of bona fide fascism a secret
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