Judge upbraids Trump admin lawyer for lack of knowledge and 'strange disconnect' about how DOGE operates

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

Mar 1st, 2025, 12:56 pm


A federal judge expressed decided levels of unease with the transparency being provided by the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a hearing on Friday. On Feb. 13, over two dozen pseudonymous current and former employees or contractors with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sued Musk, arguing his position violates the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause and separation of powers.

This argument, filed in Maryland federal court, attacks the basic constitutional legitimacy of the cost-cutting organization with an iteration of the exact same argument that spelled doom for onetime special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. As Law&Crime previously reported, a similar lawsuit was filed on the same day by a coalition of 14 states in Washington, D.C. federal court.

Now, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, a Barack Obama appointee, is one of many judges weighing if and how to grant the plaintiffs relief as DOGE comes under a sustained and varied barrage of legal complaints. During the Friday hearing, the judge drilled down on a more basic issue about the makeup of the evasively-defined organization.

Much consternation – in various lawsuits filed against DOGE, Musk and the administration – has resulted from how, exactly, DOGE is being defined and under what authority the group operates. Part and parcel of this dispute is the fact that the former U.S. Digital Service was renamed the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS). At the same time, however, the administration has been cagey about whether or not this is the group of “special employees” that answers to Musk.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/that-seems-like-a-knowable-fact-doesnt-it-judge-upbraids-trump-admin-lawyer-for-lack-of-knowledge-and-strange-disconnect-about-how-doge-operates/

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Full headline: ‘That seems like a knowable fact, doesn’t it?’: Judge upbraids Trump admin lawyer for lack of knowledge and ‘strange disconnect’ about how DOGE operates

[slightlv]

1. This is how they're going to launder all the money "saved" from firing everyone...

iffy "departments" not created with congressional rule; overseen only by the foxes, themselves. I see this and my hackles rear up automatically.

Part and parcel of this dispute is the fact that the former U.S. Digital Service was renamed the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS). At the same time, however, the administration has been cagey about whether or not this is the group of “special employees” that answers to Musk.