POGO Sues President Trump and DOGE Over Access to Records

Media Contacts: Scott Amey, General Counsel at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), [email protected]; or Caitlin MacNeal, Communications Director at POGO, [email protected].

The Project On Government Oversight has filed a civil action against President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) challenging the claim that DOGE records are covered by the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and therefore are not available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act.

“The public must have insight into the operations of the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk and the DOGE team have been granted sweeping access to the federal agencies, and the records of their activities should be well preserved and made available to the public,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight. “The Trump administration has inappropriately tried to hide DOGE’s actions from the public by declaring it is subject to the Presidential Records Act, and the courts must intervene.”

Despite the administration’s claim of “radical transparency,” its decision to declare DOGE records fall under the Presidential Records Act, which applies to the records of the president and vice president, means that the records could be withheld from the public for up to 12 years after Trump leaves office.

But DOGE, by exercising significant authority to remake the government and implement the President’s agenda, is operating as an agency. Its records must be preserved and publicly available. To be clear, our filing does not negate any constitutional challenges related to DOGE’s establishment and actions.

DOGE should be subject to the Federal Records Act, which governs when and how federal agency records must be collected, retained, preserved, or destroyed. Under that law, DOGE records will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, allowing the media and the public to access records showing what exactly DOGE is doing across our federal government.

“Transparency in what DOGE is doing and why is critical if we are going to hold our public actors accountable. This lawsuit seeks to achieve that accountability by ensuring the DOGE records are properly preserved and accessible through the Freedom of Information Act,” said POGO’s attorney Anne Weismann.