Fight Over Musk’s Role in Shutting USAID Is Kept Alive by Judge

A lawsuit accusing billionaire Elon Musk of unlawfully directing the closing of the US Agency for International Development can move ahead over the Trump administration’s objections, a Maryland federal judge ruled.

US District Judge Theodore Chuang on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s request to toss out a lawsuit that alleges Musk exercised power within the US government that’s reserved for Senate-confirmed officials. The judge also left intact a claim that the Department of Government Efficiency project spearheaded by Musk unlawfully took steps to dissolve an agency created by Congress.

Although Musk is no longer part of the administration, the case has remained active since it focuses on the months he spent as a senior White House adviser and the public face of DOGE’s push to slash spending and the federal workforce. The Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer stepped down from his government post in late May.

Read More: Elon Musk’s Court Fights to Outlast His Time at White House

The challengers want Chuang to order President Donald Trump’s administration to undo actions that they contend Musk and DOGE-affiliated staff directly took to shutter USAID. These include firing thousands of employees and contractors, canceling grants and contracts, and closing the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

The Justice Department has argued that even if Musk influenced policy while he was in the White House, he never exercised direct control over the decisions made by top officials in violation of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The current and former USAID employees counter that Musk’s public statements show him taking ownership, such as a Feb. 3 social media post in which he wrote, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”

Representatives of the White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chuang wrote that US laws that govern how federal employees and contractors can challenge being fired didn’t strip the court of authority to consider a broader challenge to the dismantling of the agency. Even if an employee won an order to get their job back, the judge wrote, they “would have no workplace to which to return.”

The judge found that in this early stage of the case, the challengers presented enough evidence to press ahead with their claims that Musk was personally responsible for how officials carried out the dissolution of the aid agency.

In March, Chuang entered an order restricting the role that Musk and DOGE-affiliated employees could play in winding down USAID’s operations while the legal fight unfolded, but a federal appeals court lifted those limits.

Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which represents the challengers, said in a statement that Wednesday’s decision “moves us one step closer to exposing Elon Musk’s unlawful dismantling of USAID.”

The case is Does v. Musk, 25-cv-462, US District Court, District of Maryland (Greenbelt).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Anthony Aarons

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