A group of 26 current and former USAID employees have filed a lawsuit against South African billionaire Elon Musk and his co-called Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” seeking a court injunction to stop the world’s richest man from dismantling their agency without formal Senate confirmation.
The hurried, slipshod hatchet that Musk and the band of young sidekicks he hired for the task — one of them, a recent high school graduate who goes by the nickname “Big Balls” — have taken to USAID, in particular, has not only put crucial foreign aid initiatives and the lives of the less fortunate in jeopardy, it has put people’s careers, as well as their personal safety, at risk, according to the complaint.
Filed on Thursday in Baltimore federal court by Norman Eisen, who served as President Obama’s White House ethics czar, the complaint on behalf of J. Does 1 – 26 points out that the issue of Musk’s appointment by Donald Trump, whose quest for a second term as president was helped along by nearly $300 million from the Tesla boss, is “not merely academic.”
The complaint contains detailed accounts of how USAID programs and employees have been affected by the hurried shutdown of the agency, from thousands of dollars in unreimbursed expenses to stranded humanitarian assistance coordinators unable to get their families home.
In a statement provided to The Independent, Eisen said, “Elon Musk is wielding extraordinarily broad and unprecedented power in leading DOGE without constitutional authority. Our government has rules to protect the American people from executive overreach. An unelected, part-time ‘special government employee’ cannot legally circumvent them. We can and will achieve accountability through the courts.”
Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary, said in an email, “These frivolous lawsuits are akin to children throwing pasta at the wall to see if it will stick. Grandstanding government efficiency speaks volumes about those who’d rather delay much-needed change with legal shenanigans than work with the Trump Administration of ridding the government of waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Musk, who has amplified a host of outlandish conspiracy theories about USAID on X, the social media platform he owns alongside his various other business interests, has also weaponized the former Twitter against its employees and contractors, according to the complaint. A little less than two weeks ago, Musk posted on X that USAID was a “criminal organization,” and that the people who worked there were “a ball of worms.” His followers then piled on, accusing USAID of being in cahoots with Hamas and other terrorist groups, after which, the complaint notes, Musk appeared at a joint press conference with Trump, during which he claimed USAID employees were “getting wealthy at taxpayer expense.” For his part, Trump chimed in to add, “USAID is really corrupt. I’ll tell you, it’s corrupt, it’s incompetent.”
“As a group, Plaintiffs are deeply concerned that their professional experience at USAID is forever publicly tarnished,” the complaint says. “Due to the resulting online threats and harassment following such heated language from Defendant Musk and President Trump, Plaintiffs also fear for their personal safety.”
A raft of personal anecdotes are listed throughout the filing, including one from an overseas USAID contractor identified as “J. Doe 9,” who is stationed with their family in “a high-risk area in the Middle East.” Ten days ago, J. Doe 9 found themselves locked out of their USAID email, with no prior warning, it says. Further, all of the safety and security apps were remotely wiped from J. Doe’s work-issued phone, which serve as the only mechanism by which those in danger zones can access help in an emergency, according to the complaint.
“If there is an emergency, J. Doe 9 hopes they will be able to get out and be taken care of by USAID, but there is no guarantee as over the last few weeks, nothing done within USAID by Defendants has been according to protocol or implemented in a methodical, safe manner,” the complaint states.
Another plaintiff, J. Doe 5, has worked for USAID for about three years, supporting the agency’s efforts to fight human trafficking, the complaint goes on. When they lost access to their email “without explanation” in early February, the complaint says “they also lost the ability to finalize a report on USAID’s counter trafficking efforts.”
“The loss of email access also prohibited them from being able to respond to an active GAO audit,” the complaint explains, referring to the Government Accountability Office, “titled ‘Combating Human Trafficking During Armed Conflicts.’”
According to the complaint, the emotional damage is real, too. J. Doe 10, is a nutrition advisor for public health clinics in Africa, according to the complaint. When they were kicked out of their email accounts, they suddenly lost the ability to communicate with their local partners, the complaint continues. This caused “extreme distress” for J. Doe 10, who the complaint describes as “a parent [who] knows clinics are in danger of shutting down, leaving malnourished children in grave danger.”
Ten-year USAID veteran J. Doe 4, the complaint states, has “experienced the harm of seeing years of their efforts and U.S. taxpayer dollars wasted, as current USAID leadership unlawfully discards investments to design and implement effective USAID programs without a fair assessment of their merit or impact.” It says they have also “witnessed the harm of colleagues around them, including a fellow whom J. Doe 4 had arranged to join the agency; the fellow was en route to their first day when notified the position was eliminated.”
“Finally, J. Doe 4 experienced direct personal harm, as the President of the United States and Defendant Musk label civil servants ‘lunatics’ and threaten to end their employment at a whim, even though J. Doe 4’s work has been supported by bipartisan appropriations bills and is based on systematic analysis,” the complaint asserts.
Then, there are the workaday issues that might not make headlines but have a deleterious real-world impact on everyday civil servants. In one instance, a former US Army officer working for USAID, identified in the complaint as J. Doe 3, not only is in the dark as to whether or not they still have a job, but also was left hanging with more than $15,000 worth of outstanding travel vouchers “that should be paid by the agency but have not been paid thus far.”
In short, the complaint accuses Musk and DOGE of having “pulled the rug out” from under all 26 plaintiffs, professionally and financially, in addition to “publicly besmirch[ing]” their reputations in service of an “unconstitutional power grab.” This, according to the complaint, “will threaten their ability to obtain future employment.”
“More broadly, the reckless disregard with which Defendants have exercised their unconstitutional authority has unlawfully disrupted contracts of the United States – some of which are signed by individual Plaintiffs – undermined national security, and put American lives at risk abroad,” the complaint states.
It contends Musk’s activities violate the Appointments Clause, as only the U.S. Senate, not the president, has the authority to make such a hire. It also alleges a violation of the Separation of Powers, with Musk and Trump – who is not named as a defendant – “repeatedly subverting the Congress.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare Musk and DOGE unconstitutional, to set aside any actions Musk has already taken, and to enjoin Musk and his subordinates “from performing their significant and wide-ranging duties unless and until Defendant Musk is properly appointed pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.”
