WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington has ordered Elon Musk and operatives involved with his Department of Government Efficiency to hand over documents and answer questions about its role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs.

The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday that the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of 14 Democratic state attorneys general challenging Musk’s authority — had demonstrated a clear need to shed light on the inner workings of Musk’s team. It was the first time a judge has ordered Musk’s division be subject to discovery.

In the weeks after Musk’s team fanned out across federal agencies demanding access to federal offices and databases, lawyers seeking to stop the group’s advances have been forced to rely on news reports and anecdotal evidence about what, exactly, Musk’s team has been doing.

Federal Judges Grow Frustrated

In many cases, federal judges have grown frustrated by the inability of the government’s own lawyers to answer straightforward questions about what data Musk’s associates have viewed, or to what extent the group had directly spearheaded recent downsizing efforts. In filings in another case, the government has also downplayed Musk’s role, claiming he was not officially the group’s leader.

The group of states had asked Chutkan to grant the request to let them probe Musk’s team for information in order to confirm details about its operations and its future plans, and to “illustrate the nature and scope of the unconstitutional and unlawful authority” they said Musk has so far exercised.

Chutkan agreed, writing in an opinion that “the requests seek to identify DOGE personnel and the parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority — a question central to Plaintiffs’ claims.”

The order Wednesday was more limited than the states’ slightly more ambitious request, which included a demand for two members of Musk’s team to sit for depositions — an ask Chutkan denied. But the order still requires Musk and his office to provide a broad array of information about its engagement with federal agencies, employees, contracts, grants and databases within three weeks.

Judges in other cases have responded similarly to demands for more clarity about Musk’s team, which has largely been shrouded in secrecy.

On Thursday, a judge in California required an associate of Musk’s who was detailed to the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm, to be deposed about any role he had in helping steer the mass firings of federal workers.

And on Monday, a judge in Washington ruled that Musk’s office was subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and ordered it to rapidly produce records that a public ethics group had sued to obtain.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Zach Montague/Doug Mills
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