A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked an order from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan directing Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to turn over records and answer questions about its efforts to slash the federal bureaucracy.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a stay of Chutkan’s directive, suggesting that the lower court judge must rule on the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss before allowing any discovery. It’s not a final ruling on whether DOGE must eventually turn over the records.
Soon after the panel’s decision, Chutkan canceled a status hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Chutkan’s order granting discovery marked the first time a judge ordered Musk to produce documents in a legal challenge to his and DOGE’s efforts to downsize the federal government and cut costs.
She said her order was meant to allow identification of DOGE personnel and “the parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority.”
The request for information about DOGE came in a lawsuit by a coalition of states, led by New Mexico, which claims Musk’s vast role heading DOGE is unconstitutional since he wasn’t confirmed by the Senate. They’re seeking to block DOGE from accessing seven federal agencies.
Though the billionaire tech mogul is said to be leading DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, the White House has maintained that Musk is not technically a part of DOGE, instead serving as a senior adviser to the president.
Chutkan, an appointee of former President Biden who also oversaw the federal election subversion criminal case against President Trump, previously declined to grant the request from the 14 Democratic state attorneys general for a temporary restraining order after finding they had not made the necessary showing of irreparable harm.
However, in a footnote, the judge suggested that the Justice Department may have stretched the truth in court filings regarding the breadth of DOGE’s power over personnel issues. She reminded the government of its duty to “make truthful representations to the court.”
DOGE has drawn dozens of legal challenges over its rapid efforts to install employees at federal agencies with an aim of cutting trillions of dollars in government spending.
The Democratic-led states are seeking to block Musk and DOGE agents from accessing confidential data at the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Commerce.
