President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated early Monday afternoon in a ceremony inside the Capitol Building. This morning has already been chaotic, with reports that Trump plans to issue hundreds of executive orders, while President Joe Biden announced last-minute preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and others.
The Washington Post reports that minutes into Trump’s second term, the DC non-profit public interest law firm National Security Counselors will file a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency rules.
WaPo’s Jeff Stein obtained a 30-page complaint that will be filed later today. The complaint alleges that the nongovernmental DOGE panel violates a 1972 law requiring advisory committees to the White House to adhere to rules on disclosure, hiring, and other practices.
The lawsuit claims that DOGE meets the requirements of a “federal advisory committee,” which is required by law to have a “fairly balanced” representation. These include filing annual reports summarizing the committee’s activities with the General Services Administration, tracking minutes and other meeting documents that must be made publicly available unless exempted by law, and filing a charter with Congress.
“DOGE is not exempted from FACA’s requirements,” NSC stated in the lawsuit, written by Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors.
McClanahan said, “All meetings of DOGE, including those conducted through an electronic medium, must be open to the public.”
The lawsuit asks the court that any report produced by DOGE “does not reflect the views of a lawfully constituted advisory committee” and to ban Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who also leads the panel, from conducting any official business until it complies with FACA.
McClanahan told WaPo in a statement, “We’re not trying to say DOGE can’t exist. Advisory committees like DOGE have been around for decades. We’re just saying that DOGE can’t exist without following the law,” adding, “If DOGE turns around and complies with FACA, the case is over.”
Meanwhile, Sam Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, said DOGE primarily implements ideas within the White House and should be exempt from FACA: “DOGE isn’t a federal advisory committee because DOGE doesn’t really exist. DOGE is a branding exercise, a shorthand for Trump’s government reform efforts.”
Hammond added: “The president is allowed to take advice from external experts without creating a formal advisory committee.”
On X, the account featuring National Security Counselors stated, “Pub interest law firm for natsec, info/privacy law. I’m not here anymore. Come find me on Bluesky.”
Bluesky is a social media app for anti-Trumpers suffering from ‘TDS’…
The non-profit’s Director, Bradley P. Moss, is another Bluesky-er in the DC swamp.
Not a fan of Musk’s X.
DC Swamp is poised to unleash a barrage of lawsuits against Trump. Let the chaos begin.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/20/2025 – 12:15
