The Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) structure and authority has become a central mystery in the barrage of lawsuits seeking to stymie its operations.

After insisting Elon Musk isn’t the group’s formal leader, the White House under mounting pressure cleared up confusion over DOGE’s leadership Tuesday, naming Amy Gleason as the cost-cutting panel’s administrator.

But how exactly is Musk involved? And is DOGE an agency?

Those open questions became front and center at a series of court hearings this week in some of the roughly two dozen lawsuits challenging DOGE’s operations.

Hanging in the balance is whether the group can enact its ambitious plans without congressional action, access confidential government systems and avoid open records requests.

Elon Musk’s involvement

Questions had been mounting about Musk’s role ever since the administration submitted court filings indicating the Tesla CEO is not a DOGE employee.

“The administration is really trying to, I think, create confusion about what Musk's role is,” said John Pelissero, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Pelissero suggested that the confusion surrounding Musk’s role has allowed him to skirt typical ethics rules, such as filing financial disclosures or divesting from business interests that pose conflicts.

The White House said earlier this month that the tech billionaire plans to file a disclosure, but it will not be made public, according to The New York Times.

“It's like an elusive object out there that no one seems to be able to rein in because Trump is letting Musk do whatever he wants,” Pelissero added.

Confusion about Musk’s authority also spawned a tiff with Trump’s own Cabinet heads this week, when the tech billionaire asserted that........

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