White House: Musk Is Not The DOGE Administrator

In response to an effort from 14 Democratic attorneys general to stop Elon Musk and those working at DOGE, Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House’s Office of Administration, issued a three-page statement to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in which he stated that Musk is “an employee of the White House Office.”

“He holds that position as a non-career Special Government Employee. In that job, he is a Senior Advisor to the President,” he continued. “Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors.”

“Mr.  Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator,” he concluded.

The lawsuit from the Democrat attorneys general says Musk has “unraveled federal agencies, accessed sensitive data, and caused widespread disruption for state and local governments, federal employees, and the American people,” adding that DOGE “endangers cybersecurity and erodes public trust.”

The New Mexico, Arizona, and Michigan attorneys general are leading the lawsuit, with the attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington also part of the effort.

On Monday, Chutkan said that the effort by the Democrat attorneys general derived from news reports about the actions of Musk and DOGE. “I’m not seeing it so far. … It’s sort of like a prophylactic TRO and that’s not allowed,” Chutkan said. “The courts can’t act based on media reports. We can’t do that.”

The attorneys general contend that Musk’s actions violate the Constitution’s appointments clause, which requires that Ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States be appointed by the president subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

But Harry Graver of the Justice Department declared that Musk and his team had not fired anyone themselves or made cuts themselves. Instead, he said that officials within the federal agencies have executed the firings or made cuts.