Politics
Musk’s Team Must Produce Documents to Comply With Open Records Laws, Judge Says
A federal judge found on Monday that Elon Musk’s government-cutting unit is likely subject to public disclosure laws and must promptly turn over documents to a group that had sued for access to its internal emails.
In his order, Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the Department of Government Efficiency Mr. Musk leads had all the hallmarks of an agency that would typically be subject to laws like the Freedom of Information Act. He said Mr. Musk’s team appeared to be exercising “substantial authority over vast swathes of the federal government,” much greater than other federal agencies that are subject to the law.
Judge Cooper required both Mr. Musk’s team and the Office of Management and Budget to turn over email correspondence between their offices that the group suing had requested, and to “begin producing documents on a rolling basis as soon as practicable.”
The lawsuit, brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, had asked the court to compel those agencies to turn those records over by Monday, a time frame the judge said was unrealistic. It had argued that the group’s internal records were of extreme interest to the public as Mr. Musk and his associates have planned cuts and layoffs largely in secret while laying waste to vast sections of the federal government.
The group’s lawyers had also expressed alarm about reports that members of Mr. Musk’s team had deleted or failed to preserve encrypted text messages on platforms like Signal and emails sent from personal accounts, in what it described as violations of other federal regulations set by the National Archives and Records Administration.
In his ruling, Judge Cooper noted those concerns, writing that “this evidence gives rise to the possibility that representatives of the defendant entities may not fully appreciate their obligations to preserve federal records.”
Donald K. Sherman, the deputy director of CREW, said in an interview that the court decision “opens the door” for the public to obtain documents from Mr. Musk’s government-cutting initiative that would help it understand how it is operating.
“This is the first court to find that DOGE is subject to the Freedom of Information Act,” Mr. Sherman said. “It would hopefully provide some measure of accountability for the reckless and chaotic way that DOGE has been operating.”
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has argued that as part of the executive branch, Mr. Musk’s office, which was formed as a temporary advisory unit, was not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. It has also taken actions to try to insulate it from public records requests or judicial intervention.
At a hearing on Friday, Jonathan Maier, a lawyer for CREW, called Mr. Musk’s unit a “black box agency that’s designed and dedicated to drastically cutting federal spending at virtually any cost.”
“We’re kind of grasping at straws here, without information,” he said. “DOGE, in its conception, is a fast-moving, essentially, agent of chaos that’s affecting government functions throughout the executive branch.”
Mr. Maier argued that the request was urgent, pointing to proposals by Senate Republicans to formally adopt cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency has ordered through the rescission process, by which a president can request that Congress cancel certain funds lawmakers have appropriated.
He said that understanding what programs may have been targeted by Mr. Musk’s team depended on the public’s ability to pierce the veil of secrecy surrounding the goals and processes Mr. Musk and his associates have adopted.
“We’re barreling toward either a government shutdown or a last-minute spending bill by March 14,” he said. Using an abbreviation for U.S. DOGE Service, he added, “Viability, in terms of that bill — and from the mouths of the appropriators themselves — turns on Congress’s ability to get details on how the new U.S.D.S. operates, and whether it’s poised to prevent, at its option, appropriated funds from being spent.”
Andrew Bernie, a lawyer for the government, said on Friday that it could take the government three years to produce the all documents requested, even on an expedited basis.
During arguments on Friday, Judge Cooper pressed lawyers for CREW to explain how Mr. Musk’s team differed from a lobbying firm or other outside actors that might look to influence Congress’s appropriations process with recommended cuts.
“Those outside influences don’t have the weight of the federal government and the White House behind them,” Mr. Maier said.
Even before issuing the opinion, Judge Cooper told lawyers for the government on Friday to advise the two offices to begin preserving documents that could be subject to the Freedom of Information Act under his coming order.
In February, the White House tried to designate Mr. Musk’s office as an entity insulated from public records requests or most judicial intervention until at least 2034, by declaring the documents it produces and receives presidential records.
That designation has a special legal meaning under a law called the Presidential Records Act. The law shields from the public all documents, communication trails and records from the president, his advisers and staff until five years after that president leaves office. The federal courts have ruled that White House entities that merely advise and assist the president are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
When CREW filed a public records request law under the law, DOGE denied the filing, claiming that it is not an agency but a presidential records entity exempted from the open records law.
But Judge Cooper found it more likely that Mr. Musk’s team has acted as an agency conducting its own operations than as a mere advisory entity to the president.
President Trump’s executive order establishing Mr. Musk’s office gave it “a defined staff,” Judge Cooper wrote, adding that it “is likely exercising substantial independent authority.”
Politics
Federal judge issues temporary restraining order curtailing Trump's immigration enforcement in California
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A federal judge in Los Angeles late Friday issued a sweeping temporary restraining order (TRO) against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ruling that the agency likely violated constitutional protections through its immigration enforcement practices in California.
In a 53-page order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, barred ICE from conducting detentive stops in the Central District of California unless agents have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is in the country unlawfully.
Frimpong’s ruling explicitly prohibits ICE from relying solely on race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, location, or type of work when forming suspicion, citing the Fourth Amendment.
The order also requires ICE to keep and turn over detailed records of each stop and agents’ reasoning for them, develop official guidance for determining “reasonable suspicion,” and implement mandatory training for agents.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SUES LOS ANGELES OVER SANCTUARY POLICIES THAT ‘IMPEDE’ ICE OPERATIONS
Protesters appeared to attempt to gain access to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement black van amid protests in San Francisco. (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement via X)
Frimpong presided over a hearing Thursday where she considered granting the request that will have major implications for immigration enforcement in California, a state that has become a focal point in President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation plans.
The judge heard arguments about whether to grant the TRO against ICE over allegations the agency is violating constitutional rights during its immigration arrests.
Frimpong said during the hearing on Thursday that she was leaning toward granting the TRO Friday.
“I think it’s important for the court not to burden otherwise lawful law enforcement activities,” the judge said.
The case was initially brought in June as a routine petition from three detainees, but it has ballooned into a weighty lawsuit challenging the way ICE operates.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing May 6; ICE agents. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque and Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass praised the federal court’s decision to issue a temporary restraining order halting what she described as “unconstitutional and reckless raids conducted under the Trump Administration.”
“Today, the Court ruled in favor of the United States Constitution, of American values and decency — this is an important step toward restoring safety, security and defending the rights of all Angelenos,” Bass shared in a statement.
Bass characterized the federal actions as aggressive and harmful and reaffirmed Los Angeles’ commitment to protecting its residents’ rights.
“Los Angeles has been under assault by the Trump Administration as masked men grab people off the street, chase working people through parking lots and march through children’s summer camps. We went to court against the administration because we will never accept these outrageous and un-American acts as normal,” she continued.
Immigration rights groups and local governments, including the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver, and West Hollywood, have all intervened in the case and Democrat-led states have filed an amicus brief in support of them.
The plaintiffs alleged in court papers that ICE is “indiscriminately” arresting people with “brown skin” at Home Depots, car washes, farms and more. Authorities made the arrests with no “reasonable suspicion” and sometimes mistakenly apprehended U.S. citizens in the process, all in violation of the Fourth Amendment, attorneys wrote.
The plaintiffs argued the Trump administration gave ICE an unrealistic quota of 3,000 arrests per day, causing officers to feel pressured to blow past legal requirements to achieve those numbers.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is disputing the allegations and denies wrongdoing.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents clash with protesters in San Francisco July 8. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via X)
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli responded to the ruling and vehemently opposed the allegations in the lawsuit.
“We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and maintain that our agents have never detained individuals without proper legal justification,” Essayli wrote in a post on X.
“Our federal agents will continue to enforce the law and abide by the U.S. Constitution.”
Department of Justice attorneys wrote that immigration arrests, of which there have been nearly 3,000 across California since early June, have been carried out legally.
“Their request that immigration authorities be enjoined from relying on certain factors like occupation and location flies in the face of established law requiring immigration officials to consider the totality of the circumstances, including things like occupation and location,” the attorneys wrote.
The plaintiffs have also asked the judge to expand visitor access to a short-term detention facility in downtown Los Angeles.
The facility became the site of protests and unrest in early June, leading to authorities temporarily abandoning the building. The plaintiffs allege that detainees’ access to lawyers has been hindered while in the facility, in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Frimpong’s order reinforces their Fifth Amendment claim, requiring ICE to ensure immediate legal access for detainees. The temporary restraining order will remain in effect pending further litigation.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Politics
Contributor: Maybe the Epstein case isn't closed, but it's not going to be political dynamite
A lot of people online have been very, very upset over the Trump Department of Justice’s twofold conclusion, announced last Sunday, that Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail in 2019 was a suicide and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no “incriminating ‘client list’ ” among its Epstein files.
The tremendous uproar against the Justice Department and FBI has crossed partisan lines; if anything, it has been many conservative commentators and some Republican elected officials who have expressed the most outrage, with accusations and implications that the government is hiding something about the case to protect powerful individuals.
Given the sordid nature of the underlying subject matter and the fact the feds closely examined “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” the obsession with the “Epstein files” gives off a vibe that is, frankly, somewhat creepy. To be sure, it is always righteous to seek justice for victims, but many don’t want public scrutiny.
The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files has not been its finest hour. During a February interview on Fox News, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said, in response to host John Roberts’ question about whether the Justice Department would release a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” that the list was “sitting on [her] desk right now to review.” It is an astonishing about-face for Bondi to now disavow that investigators have any such list. The Trump administration owes us all a clear explanation.
With that large caveat aside, though, the fact remains: This is just not the biggest deal in the world — and if you think it is, then you probably need to log off social media.
The midterm elections next fall are not going to be determined by the existence — or absence — of a “client list” for an extravagantly wealthy dead pedophile. Nor will they be decided on the absurd grounds of whether FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have somehow been “compromised.” (They haven’t.) Instead, the election — and our politics — will be contested on typical substantive grounds: the economy, inflation, immigration, crime, global stability and so forth. This is as it should be. There are simply better uses of your time than fuming over the government’s avowed nonexistence of the much-ballyhooed client list.
You might, for instance, consider spending more time, during these midsummer weeks, with your family. Maybe you can take the kids camping or fishing. Maybe you can take them to an amusement park or to one of America’s many national park treasures. You can spend less time scrolling Instagram and TikTok and more time reading a good old-fashioned book; you will learn more, you will be happier and you will be considerably less likely to traffic in fringe issues and bizarre rhetoric that alienates far more than it unifies.
Instead of finding meaning in the confirmation biases and groupthink validations of social media algorithms, perhaps you can locate meaning where countless human beings have found it since time immemorial: religion. Spend more time praying, reading scripture and attending services at your preferred house of worship. All of these uses of your time will fill you with a sense of stability, meaning and purpose that you will never find deep in the bowels of an X thread on the Epstein files.
Too many people today who are deeply engaged in America’s combustible political process have forgotten that there are more important things in life than politics. And even within the specific realm of politics, there are plenty of things that are more deserving of attention and emotional investment than others. Above all, it is conservatives — those oriented toward sobriety and humility, not utopianism and decadence — who ought to be able to properly contextualize America’s political tug-of-war within our broader lives and who ought to then be able to focus on the meaningful political issues to the exclusion of tawdry soap opera drama.
Like many others, I expect that the Justice Department’s recent — and seemingly definitive — waving away of the Epstein files saga will not actually prove to be the final word on the matter. To the limited extent that I allow myself to think about this sideshow, I hope that the administration does squarely address the many legitimate and unanswered questions now being asked by a frustrated citizenry that has seemingly been misled by the Trump administration, either in Bondi’s February statement or in this month’s report. But I also hope that the extent of this past week’s rage might serve as an edifying moment. Let’s return to the real things in life and focus on what matters most.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The article asserts that the Trump Department of Justice’s conclusion about Jeffrey Epstein’s death being a suicide and the absence of a “client list” is not as politically explosive as online discourse suggests, urging readers to prioritize substantive issues like the economy, immigration, and crime in upcoming elections.
- It criticizes the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, noting Attorney General Pam Bondi’s earlier claim of possessing a client list as an “astonishing about-face” that demands public clarification.
- The author dismisses the fixation on Epstein-related conspiracies as “creepy” and counterproductive, advising readers to invest time in family, outdoor activities, and religious practices instead of social media outrage.
- While acknowledging legitimate public frustration, the piece emphasizes that midterm elections will hinge on traditional policy matters, not Epstein’s “sideshow,” and calls for conservatives to maintain focus on “sobriety and humility” in political engagement.
Different views on the topic
- Critics argue the Justice Department’s reversal on Epstein evidence fuels distrust, with bipartisan outrage questioning whether powerful figures are being shielded from accountability, as highlighted in the article’s own reporting[2].
- Conspiracy theories—previously amplified by now-FBI officials Kash Patel and Dan Bongino—insist Epstein was murdered to conceal a “client list” implicating elites, despite official findings of suicide and no evidence of blackmail[2][3].
- Skeptics demand transparency, citing Bondi’s February 2025 Fox News interview where she claimed a client list was “on her desk,” contrasting sharply with the DOJ’s July memo stating no such list exists[1][4].
- The DOJ’s refusal to release additional Epstein files—citing child abuse material and protection of innocent individuals—further fuels allegations of a cover-up, particularly among conservative circles[2][4].
Politics
Democrat John Fetterman declares support for ICE, condemning any calls for abolition as 'outrageous'
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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has expressed support for the work performed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and condemned any calls to put the kibosh on the federal law enforcement agency.
“ICE performs an important job for our country,” he declared in a post on X, describing “Any calls to abolish ICE” as “inappropriate and outrageous.”
Multiple Republican lawmakers agreed with Fetterman.
FETTERMAN ISSUES ‘DO’ AND ‘DO NOT’ LIST, DOUBLING DOWN ON ANTI-VIOLENCE MESSAGE AFTER CALLING OUT LA ‘ANARCHY’
Sen. John Fetterman during the sixth installment of The Senate Project moderated by FOX NEWS anchor Shannon Bream at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate on June 2, 2025, in Boston, Mass. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
“Amen,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a post when retweeting his Democratic colleague’s post.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., also expressed agreement with Fetterman’s comments.
“Seconded,” a post on Lee’s @SenMikeLee X account that retweeted Fetterman declares.
“I concur. Thank you Senator,” Mace noted when retweeting Fetterman’s post.
‘NOT A DEMOCRAT’: JOHN FETTERMAN CALLS ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S NYC PRIMARY WIN A ‘GIFT’ TO THE GOP
The post on Fetterman’s @SenFettermanPA X account echoed comments the senator had made previously.
“ICE agents are just doing their job,” he told Fox News’ Tyler Olson, adding, “I fully support that.” Regarding any Democrats who want to abolish ICE or “treat them as criminals,” Fetterman decried that as “inappropriate” as well as “outrageous.”
But Fetterman has also expressed support for the prospect of amnesty for migrant workers.
DEMOCRATIC SEN. FETTERMAN SHUTS DOWN AOC’S CALL FOR TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT AFTER IRAN STRIKES
“Absolutely support amnesty for the hardworking, otherwise law-abiding migrant workers. Round up and deport the criminals. We must acknowledge the critical contribution migrants make to our nation’s economy,” he noted in a post on X.
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