Judge Signals Musk’s DOGE Should Be Preserving Its Work Records

A federal judge in Washington said he’ll likely order Elon Musk’s government efficiency team to preserve records of its activities amid allegations that staff are using an encrypted messaging platform to communicate.

At a hearing Friday, US District Judge Christopher Cooper told a Trump administration lawyer that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency should assume that a forthcoming preservation order would immediately apply to its work and to “advise your clients of that as soon as possible.”

Cooper is presiding over a lawsuit demanding DOGE comply with records requests by a watchdog group claiming the billionaire and his team are ...