President Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday night has already made its way into court, with a group of plaintiffs seeking to dismantle the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) quickly latching onto the remarks.
“DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps,” Trump said during his address. “Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”
In court, the administration has repeatedly insisted Musk is not a formal part of DOGE and that he is a senior adviser in the White House with no actual authority. The administration has instead named Amy Gleason as interim DOGE administrator.
Kelly McClanahan, an attorney representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming DOGE’s setup doesn’t comply with federal law, submitted a new court filing alerting the judge to Trump’s remarks minutes after his speech concluded.
Calling it “new evidence,” McClanahan asked the judge to keep Trump’s speech in mind as she weighs a request that Musk and other officials sit for depositions in the case.
The attorney wrote that the president’s speech “conclusively demonstrates that expedited discovery is urgently needed to ascertain the nature of the Department of Government Efficiency.”
DOGE faces more than two dozen lawsuits that challenge the group’s rapid efforts to implant itself across the federal bureaucracy and cut spending, agency by agency. Musk’s role has become a central component of many of the cases.
McClanahan represents two individual attorneys who are suing over claims that DOGE is subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which mandates various transparency requirements for advisory committees.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Biden who oversees the case, is set to soon rule on the plaintiffs’ request that Musk sit for a deposition. It would add to another judge’s ruling, issued last week, ordering certain officials involved in DOGE to sit for depositions as part of a separate lawsuit.
