Who Is Working for DOGE?
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Massive cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting — brought to you by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — moved closer to finality ([link removed]) late on Thursday night, with Congress to cancel $9 billion in funding.
* DOGE has taken a hatchet to the federal government over the past six months, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs and shuttering entire government agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development.
* But even with these devastating slashes to invaluable programs, the administration has deliberately provided scant and confusing information about DOGE, obfuscating details about its structure and even the names of its employees.

This week, we sued 20 government agencies ([link removed]) for records about groups of DOGE employees who have been installed at agencies across the federal government.
* Our ([link removed]) three ([link removed]) lawsuits ([link removed]) seek records identifying the names and titles of individuals serving on agency DOGE teams, and came after the vast majority of the agencies failed to properly respond to our public records requests or to produce a single responsive document.
* We’ve been investigating ([link removed]) DOGE’s sweeping power within the Trump administration, having filed public records requests and lawsuits for information about its dismantling of federal agencies, its problematic records preservation practices ([link removed]) , its status as an agency ([link removed]) , and more.

On his first day back in office, President Trump issued an executive order ([link removed]) establishing DOGE and requiring all agencies to set up DOGE teams made up of at least four people. We sent Freedom of Information Act requests to dozens of agencies for records that would identify the people on these teams — but agencies’ responses elicited more questions than answers.
* “[T]he CDC does not have a DOGE team, and therefore there are no documents pertaining to your request,” the agency said in response to our request. The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of the Interior answered the same way.
* But ProPublica ([link removed]) , Politico ([link removed]) , and the New York Times ([link removed]) have identified DOGE staffers at those agencies, and DOGE itself has boasted ([link removed]) of cuts it made to the FDA.

In filings in our lawsuits, DOGE has claimed ([link removed]) that its purpose is merely to advise and assist the president, and that it does not exercise any independent authority. It claims that DOGE is not an agency and its records aren’t subject to FOIA or the Federal Records Act.
* Despite DOGE’s efforts to evade transparency, we’ve uncovered three individuals ([link removed]) working for DOGE whose names were previously unreported.
* We also obtained resumes ([link removed]) of several political appointees at the Department of Labor who are known DOGE staffers.

DOGE’s evasive and illegal tactics cannot fully bury the truth. As Americans continue to see the impacts of DOGE’s massive cuts ([link removed]) , they deserve to know why these decisions were made — and who was involved.

Emil Bove Nomination Moves Forward

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Emil Bove — the Justice Department official who allegedly told agency attorneys to tell the courts “f— you” if facing court orders that slowed down deportations — to a lifetime federal judgeship.
* Bove’s nomination is a direct attack ([link removed]) on our democracy’s system of checks and balances: “Emil Bove didn’t just cross ethical lines,” our Chioma Chukwu said. “He bulldozed them.”
* According to recent whistleblower allegations ([link removed]) from longtime DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who was fired after refusing to lie in court about a deportation error the administration had made, Bove suggested defying court orders so as to expedite deportations.
* The allegations describe how the DOJ and the White House engaged in a coordinated effort to ignore facts, mislead judges, and conceal information in the service of the president’s anti-immigration agenda.

This isn’t the only incident in which Bove has demonstrated fealty to Trump’s political goals instead of the rule of law.
* Earlier this year, we filed a disciplinary complaint asking authorities in New York, where Bove is a member of the bar, to investigate his potential misconduct for his role overseeing the corrupt dismissal of criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for Adams’ political cooperation on immigration enforcement.


** On the Records
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DOGE’s Smoke and Mirrors

As we detailed above, DOGE has attempted to shield its actions from scrutiny in several ways — including by keeping the public in the dark about who exactly is working for DOGE, and where.

But even with the obfuscation and agency claims that they have no DOGE teams, other responses to our FOIA requests have shed light on some names.
* The Department of Agriculture’s response ([link removed]) identified three individuals working for DOGE whose names were previously unreported: Jeremy Lichtman, Timothy Ronan, and Samuel Berry.
* We also recently obtained resumes ([link removed]) of several political appointees at the Department of Labor who are known DOGE staffers: Miles Collins ([link removed]) , Marko Elez ([link removed]) , and Aram Moghaddassi ([link removed]) .

From public reporting and court filings, we know that DOGE has assigned some members to multiple agencies.
* For example, Elez ([link removed]) is an employee of the Department of Labor who is detailed to or has been tied to HHS ([link removed]) , the Treasury ([link removed]) , DHS ([link removed]) and its associated agencies, and the Social Security Administration ([link removed]) .
* Moghaddassi is a DOGE member ([link removed]) associated not only with Labor, but with the Treasury, the SSA, the Transportation Security Administration, and several DHS subagencies. Additionally, a response we received ([link removed]) from the Small Business Administration to a separate FOIA request lists Moghaddassi as a “Special Advisor” to Administrator Kelly Loeffler, indicating that Moghaddassi may have also done DOGE work at SBA.


** Other Stories We’re Following
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Trump Administration Accountability
* Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit (Reuters ([link removed]) )
* Defense Department to begin using Grok, Musk’s controversial AI model (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* DHS tells police that common protest activities are ‘violent tactics’ (Wired ([link removed]) )
* Trump has draft of letter to fire Fed chair. He asked Republicans if he should send it. (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* The IRS is building a vast system to share millions of taxpayers’ data with ICE (ProPublica ([link removed]) )
* Facing painful cuts, the VA reported dubious savings to DOGE (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Over 1 in 5 high-level Trump picks held crypto, Post analysis finds (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE (Associated Press ([link removed]) )

Elections and Voting Rights
* DOJ hits states with broad requests for voter rolls, election data (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Arizona tries again to ensure that manual audits of election results get done (Votebeat ([link removed]) )
* Supreme Court justice pauses ruling weakening Voting Rights Act (Washington Post ([link removed]) )

State and National News
* Texas officials say they didn’t see the flood coming. Oral histories show residents have long warned of risks. (ProPublica ([link removed]) )
* DOJ seeks one-day sentence for officer in raid that killed Breonna Taylor (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* APLS board chair bans books connected to ‘gender ideology’ (Alabama Reflector ([link removed]) )

LGBTQ+ Rights
* Many medical treatments could be affected by Supreme Court transgender ruling (Stateline ([link removed]) )
* Louisiana Medicaid quietly stops reimbursing patients for gender-related prescriptions (Louisiana Illuminator ([link removed]) )
* Wisconsin Supreme Court clears the way for a conversion therapy ban to be enacted (Associated Press ([link removed]) )
* Justice Department demands patient details from trans medicine providers (New York Times ([link removed]) )

Abortion and Reproductive Rights
* Travel time, costs for abortions increased after state bans, researchers find (Stateline ([link removed]) )
* West Virginia’s near-total abortion pill ban upheld by federal court (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* New York county clerk rejects Texas’s effort to fine doctor in abortion pill case (Guardian ([link removed]) )
* In ‘another blow’ to reproductive health, abortion privacy protections rule vacated (Indiana Capital Chronicle ([link removed]) )
* Missouri Supreme Court asked for quick hearing on decision to restart abortions in the state (Missouri Independent ([link removed]) )
* Maryland taps Affordable Care Act fund to help pay for abortion care (NPR ([link removed]) )

Threats to Education
* Supreme Court ruling allows Trump to gut Education Dept., sparking fears for vulnerable students (19th News ([link removed]) )
* Education Department funding freeze targets summer school and language programs that are lifelines for families (CNN ([link removed]) )
* Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Inside the conservative campaign that took down a university president (New York Times ([link removed]) )

Government Transparency and Public Records Law
* Why Gov. Greg Abbott won’t release his emails with Elon Musk (ProPublica ([link removed]) )
* ‘Antithetical’: Ohio Supreme Court ruling threatens public access to officials’ records (Dayton Daily News ([link removed]) )

Immigration
* U.S. sends 5 men to Eswatini in third-country deportation, DHS says (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Inside ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ detainees report relentless mosquitoes, limited water (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* ICE lawyers are hiding their names in immigration court (Intercept ([link removed]) )
* Burgum, Bondi visit Alcatraz in California as Trump calls for it to reopen (The Hill ([link removed]) )

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