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 working “in the shadows” to dismantle the federal bureaucracy. Cooper didn’t immediately rule on whether DOGE, which President Donald Trump created within the executive branch shortly after taking office, must comply with a federal transparency law.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is suing to enforce its demands for documents and information about DOGE from both the US DOGE Service and the Office of Management and Budget. The group pressed for an order ahead of upcoming budget negotiations in Congress, arguing the public has an urgent need to understand DOGE’s role in spending decisions.

While the judge didn’t rule on any of CREW’s demands, he signaled he was unlikely to order the government to move as quickly as the group wanted.

The Trump administration is arguing that the US DOGE Service is exempt from the federal Freedom of Information Act. The law gives members of the public a right to see communications and other records created by federal agencies. However, the law doesn’t apply to certain offices within the White House that serve a purely advisory role.

During Friday’s hearing, Justice Department lawyer Andrew Bernie said that DOGE had “no authority independent of the president.” CREW lawyer Jonathan Maier argued that DOGE is exercising significant power to direct cuts to hundreds of millions of dollars in spending and to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

CREW had asked Cooper for the preservation order for DOGE’s records based on news reports about Musk’s team members using the encrypted Signal app to communicate.

Bernie said that the DOGE office was governed by the Presidential Records Act, which already included requirements to maintain documents. When Cooper said that law might not be enforceable, Bernie replied that didn’t change the fact that it still carried obligations.

“Do you care to provide the court with any assurances that no DOGE staff is currently using Signal or otherwise deleting potentially relevant communications,” the judge asked.

Bernie replied that he couldn’t “represent what other people are doing,” but that he could “certainly talk to my clients and see if there’s any assurances we can give the court in another submission very soon.”

The case is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. US DOGE Service, 25-cv-511, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).