The Daily Populous Friday March 7th, 2025 night edition
Authored by theintercept.com and submitted by PaperRobot

The Freedom of Information Act is a vital tool to expose how the U.S. government operates, and it’s especially critical when it comes to Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and DOGE have slashed staffing and spending at vital federal agencies with startling secrecy and speed.

FOIA works best when requests are as specific as possible. The U.S. government sometimes plays games with journalists, researchers, and other watchdogs, rejecting asks it considers too vague — such as requests for correspondence that fail to include an official’s government email address.

That’s why The Intercept is publishing Musk’s government email address.

According to a source, Musk has been assigned the email address erm71@who.eop.gov. The email address reflects his attachment to the White House Office, the Executive Office of the President, and, apparently, Musk’s full initials plus his birth year, 1971. This differs from the standard format for EOP emails, which typically include the staffer’s full first and last name.

The Intercept has already filed more than a dozen FOIA requests for Musk’s emails using this information.

Musk did not reply to a request for comment sent to his email address. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff who nominally supervises Musk, also did not reply to The Intercept’s inquiry.

Along with FOIA requests sent to DOGE itself, The Intercept also sent requests to federal agencies that have been key partners in DOGE’s demolition effort, such as the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management.

The Intercept has also filed FOIA requests for Musk’s emails with high-ranking officials at agencies that have been targeted by DOGE in recent weeks, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Social Security Administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Education, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, IRS, Department of Commerce, and Treasury Department.

The Trump administration has taken measures to shield Musk and DOGE from public accountability and transparency, including by making the case that DOGE itself is not subject to FOIA at all. In the executive order establishing DOGE, Trump decreed that it would be housed within the Executive Office of the President and that its administrator would report to the White House chief of staff. This fact alone, government lawyers argued, means DOGE is not covered by FOIA, which does not apply to the president and close White House advisers.

“We’re seeing those blatant inconsistencies between what DOGE is doing and what the government is saying.”

But transparency advocates argue Trump does not have the power to categorically exempt DOGE from public scrutiny like this, given the sweeping authority DOGE has apparently been given to slash agency spending and fire staff.

“You have to look at what DOGE is actually doing,” said Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, a watchdog organization that sued DOGE under FOIA in mid-February. “We’re seeing those blatant inconsistencies between what DOGE is doing and what the government is saying.”

“DOGE is wielding influence over federal agencies,” Chukwu said, which undermines the administration’s position “that DOGE is just designed to advise the president. It is not. It is the key tool the federal government is using to gut the federal workforce.”

Do you have information about DOGE? Use a personal device to contact Shawn Musgrave on Signal at shawnmusgrave.82

In court, government attorneys have claimed Musk is not DOGE’s actual leader, but only a “senior advisor to the President.” This is contrary to Trump’s repeated characterizations of Musk’s role, including in his address to Congress on Tuesday, in which the president said DOGE was “headed by Elon Musk.” Groups suing over DOGE’s lack of transparency quickly filed these remarks in court as part of a bid to get discovery about DOGE, including a deposition of Musk himself.

“The government has given shifting and conflicting answers on Mr. Musk’s role, what DOGE is doing, and under what legal authority DOGE is operating,” said Donald Sherman, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, another watchdog group that has filed two lawsuits so far over DOGE, one of which seeks to force DOGE to comply with FOIA requests.

In a lawsuit filed in late February, a third watchdog, the Project on Government Oversight, seeks a straight up-or-down ruling that DOGE is an agency subject to FOIA given its “self-contained structure” and its “substantial independent authority.”

So far, the government has not filed responses to either POGO’s or American Oversight’s lawsuits. All of The Intercept’s FOIA requests for DOGE records are still pending.

But it seems DOGE and its attorneys are gearing up for further FOIA fights. As part of its takeover of the CFPB, DOGE secured an agreement under which the CFPB would “coordinate with” DOGE’s lawyers about any FOIA requests pertaining to DOGE’s work.

“At every step, despite promising maximal transparency,” said Sherman, “they are taking every step they possibly can to shield DOGE’s operations from the public and from Congress.”

xBoatEng on March 6th, 2025 at 18:46 UTC »

Would be more efficient to FOIA all the Doge underlings which would bring forth musk's emails.

purpleowlie on March 6th, 2025 at 18:37 UTC »

God, I hate this man's resting villain face.

neutrino71 on March 6th, 2025 at 18:20 UTC »

Sunlight is the best disinfectant