- A judge ruled that federal workers associated with the White House DOGE office can be subpoenaed in a current lawsuit.
- The lawsuit filed by AFL-CIO seeks information on how the DOGE office is handling sensitive data.
- US District Judge John Bates highlighted DOGE’s “unclear” structure and authority as keys to the legal decision.
A federal judge on Thursday granted a motion to require federal workers tied to the the White House DOGE office to testify under oath.
The decision came in a lawsuit from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, one of the country’s largest trade unions. The group sued the DOGE office and the Department of Labor on February 5 over access to sensitive personal data.
The ruling states that the four depositions are capped at “eight hours in the aggregate.”
The lawsuit is one of more than 85 lawsuits challenging the scope of the DOGE office’s authority.
AFL-CIO filed a motion for expedited discovery, citing limited information about the DOGE office’s current operation. Washington, DC, District Judge John Bates wrote in the ruling that the DOGE office’s “structure” and “scope of authority” are “not only unclear on the current record but also critical” to decide how the law applies to the agency.
Bates wrote that it would be "strange to permit defendants to submit evidence that addresses critical factual issues and proceed to rule on a preliminary injunction motion without permitting plaintiffs to explore those factual issues through very limited discovery."
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.