Lawyers use Trump's speech before Congress in suit against DOGE
Less than an hour after President Donald Trump finished his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, lawyers cited his words as evidence in a lawsuit challenging Elon Musk's role in the administration's drastic cuts to federal spending, workers and services.
Lawyers representing a group of nonprofits and unions that are challenging the legality of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, included an excerpt from the speech in their filing Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., to argue that more information is “urgently needed to ascertain the nature” of the budget-slashing group.
The White House has represented that DOGE is run by acting administrator Amy Gleason, rather than by Musk. However, during his address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, Trump clearly identified Musk as the person running DOGE, seemingly contradicting his own administration.
“To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight,” Trump said during his address, with Musk himself present and watching the speech.
Musk was seen accepting the praise and thanking the president.
The Tuesday-night filing was submitted in a case challenging the legality of DOGE by arguing it had not complied with the terms of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs how the government runs advisory commissions.
As DOGE’s influence grows throughout the federal government, its exact nature and its relationship with Musk remains vague. The Trump administration insists that Musk is merely a senior advisor to the president and that DOGE should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
In a separate filing Wednesday morning, the plaintiffs' attorneys asked a federal judge to fast-track their case this week by expediting discovery – the process by which the parties in a legal matter exchange evidence.
“The factual background of this case is in a constant state of flux, all due to the Government’s inconsistent positions regarding the nature of the work Elon Musk performs,” they wrote in the filing.
Lawyers representing DOGE oppose the request to fast-track the case, according to the plaintiff's attorneys.
While Trump’s remarks during his address before Congress on Tuesday are unlikely to dramatically change the trajectory of the court case, the filing demonstrates the growing and complicated entanglement between the president’s claims, the arguments made by Department of Justice lawyers in court, and the nearly one hundred lawsuits challenging the Trump administration.
