DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
DOGE 已成过去，它的记录去哪了？
Jul. 12, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT By Lauren Harper 2026年7月12日，美国东部时间上午6:00，作者：Lauren Harper
The Department of Government Efficiency, which carried out the most transformative restructuring of the federal government in a generation, has formally ended — with no public accounting of its actions. “政府效率部”（DOGE）已经正式解散。该部门曾对联邦政府进行了整整一代人以来最具变革性的重组，但其行动却未向公众做出任何交代。
Despite touting itself as the most transparent administration in history, the Trump White House is working to ensure that no DOGE records ever see the light of day. This is a dangerous antidemocratic precedent, especially since DOGE took direction from Elon Musk, who was famously not a regular government employee. 尽管特朗普政府自诩为历史上最透明的政府，但白宫正竭力确保 DOGE 的任何记录都不会公之于众。这是一个危险的反民主先例，尤其是考虑到 DOGE 的指令来自埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk），而众所周知，他并非正式的政府雇员。
By handing over essential government functions to members of the ultrawealthy who happen to be friends with the president, while systematically dismantling America’s transparency infrastructure, the administration is effectively hiding that public policy is being dictated at an oligarch’s request. The threat is the privatization of government power, with no chance of oversight or public input. 通过将核心政府职能移交给与总统交好的超级富豪，同时系统性地拆除美国的透明度基础设施，本届政府实际上是在掩盖一个事实：公共政策正由寡头意志所左右。这种威胁在于政府权力的私有化，且完全排除了监督或公众参与的可能性。
If the DOGE model succeeds, there’s no telling how many shadow agencies may follow — and how many government decisions taxpayers could be locked out of. To date, what little the public knows about DOGE has mostly come from whistleblowers. 如果 DOGE 的模式取得成功，谁也无法预料未来会出现多少“影子机构”，纳税人又会被排除在多少政府决策之外。迄今为止，公众对 DOGE 的了解少之又少，且大多来自举报人。
The mechanics behind this information blackout are twofold. Almost from its inception, the Trump administration argued that DOGE was not an agency with independent authority and therefore was not subject to the real-time scrutiny of Freedom of Information Act (or FOIA) requests. Rather, the administration said that DOGE’s sole legal function was to advise and assist the president, and that political appointees at federal agencies — not DOGE personnel — held the ultimate authority to implement its recommended mass firings and agency liquidations. 造成这种信息封锁的机制有两个方面。几乎从成立之初，特朗普政府就辩称 DOGE 不是一个拥有独立权力的机构，因此不受《信息自由法》（FOIA）实时审查的约束。相反，政府声称 DOGE 唯一的法律职能是向总统提供建议和协助，而联邦机构的政治任命官员——而非 DOGE 人员——才拥有实施其建议的大规模裁员和机构清算的最终权力。
Taken at face value, this would mean that DOGE’s records fall under the Presidential Records Act. This is a critical distinction from federal agency records: Presidential records don’t become subject to FOIA until five years after an administration leaves office. This multiyear delay makes it functionally impossible for the public to verify that these files are being preserved. 从表面上看，这意味着 DOGE 的记录属于《总统记录法》的管辖范围。这与联邦机构记录有着本质区别：总统记录在政府离任五年后才会受到《信息自由法》的约束。这种长达数年的延迟，使得公众在实际上根本无法核实这些文件是否得到了妥善保存。
The dangers are already playing out. A Wired investigation published Thursday found that last year the National Labor Relations Board, which investigates reports of unfair labor practices and holds sensitive whistleblower files, deleted DOGE team accounts before investigators could audit them. This deletion followed a high-profile whistleblower complaint alleging that the DOGE team at the labor board had been granted unrestricted access to alter and copy sensitive data. 危险已经显现。周四发表的一项《连线》（Wired）调查发现，去年国家劳资关系委员会（负责调查不公平劳工行为报告并持有敏感举报人档案）在调查人员审计之前，就删除了 DOGE 团队的账户。在此次删除之前，曾有一名高调的举报人投诉称，劳资关系委员会的 DOGE 团队被授予了不受限制的权限，可以修改和复制敏感数据。
Erasing DOGE’s digital footprints appears to have compromised a federal investigation and violated the Federal Records Act, which compels agencies to keep records for the length of their retention schedule. It also means that our current primary mechanism for DOGE transparency — submitting FOIA requests to federal agencies — has already been sabotaged. 抹除 DOGE 的数字足迹似乎已经破坏了一项联邦调查，并违反了《联邦记录法》，该法案强制要求各机构在其保留期限内保存记录。这也意味着我们目前实现 DOGE 透明度的主要机制——向联邦机构提交《信息自由法》请求——已经遭到破坏。
Dual lawsuits brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and American Oversight are among those actively challenging the administration’s stance that DOGE isn’t subject to FOIA. The groups argue that because DOGE wielded substantial independent government power, including implementing policy and personnel changes, it cannot hide behind an advisory label. While these cases are still winding through the courts, judges have ruled that DOGE must preserve its records in the interim. “华盛顿公民责任与道德组织”（CREW）和“美国监督”（American Oversight）发起的两起诉讼，正积极挑战政府关于 DOGE 不受《信息自由法》约束的立场。这些组织认为，由于 DOGE 行使了实质性的独立政府权力，包括实施政策和人事变动，它不能躲在“咨询机构”的标签背后。虽然这些案件仍在法院审理中，但法官已裁定 DOGE 在此期间必须保存其记录。
The outcome of these cases is all the more consequential in light of the Trump administration’s recent adoption of a radical Office of Legal Counsel opinion declaring that the Presidential Records Act itself is unconstitutional. The memo — which the White House requested — argues that presidential papers are no longer public property but the president’s personal property to do with as he wishes. This effectively gives the president a green light to destroy or delete official files at will. 鉴于特朗普政府最近采纳了法律顾问办公室的一项激进意见，宣布《总统记录法》本身违宪，这些案件的结果显得尤为重要。这份由白宫要求的备忘录辩称，总统文件不再是公共财产，而是总统可以随意处置的个人财产。这实际上为总统随意销毁或删除官方文件开了绿灯。
The legal reasoning behind this memo is as dangerous as it is absurd. No president, not even Donald Trump during his first term, has argued that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional. Treating government records as personal trophies (to be hoarded, incinerated or anything else) is a clear affront to democratic accountability. My organization, Freedom of the Press Foundation, joined with CREW in a lawsuit to force the administration to comply with the presidential recordkeeping law. In late May, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to comply with the Presidential Records Act as the case proceeds. 这份备忘录背后的法律逻辑既荒谬又危险。没有任何一位总统，甚至包括唐纳德·特朗普在第一个任期内，曾声称《总统记录法》违宪。将政府记录视为个人战利品（可以囤积、焚烧或做任何处理）是对民主问责制的公然冒犯。我的组织“新闻自由基金会”（Freedom of the Press Foundation）已与 CREW 联合提起诉讼，迫使政府遵守总统记录保存法。5月下旬，美国哥伦比亚特区地方法院下令白宫在案件审理期间必须遵守《总统记录法》。
The White House has signaled that it intends to appeal, leaving the future of public access to presidential records — potentially including DOGE’s — in limbo. During a recent House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought underscored the administration’s intent to let the DOGE paper trail go dark. Testifying that the White House has no plans to issue a final after-action report detailing DOGE’s total costs or workforce cuts, Vought said the fruits of the initiative’s labor are “sprinkled all across the government.” But as the labor board’s deletion proves, those “sprinklings” are being erased. 白宫已表示打算上诉，这使得公众获取总统记录（可能包括 DOGE 的记录）的未来陷入了不确定性。在最近的一次众议院拨款小组委员会听证会上，管理和预算办公室主任拉塞尔·沃特（Russell Vought）强调了政府让 DOGE 的纸面记录“消失”的意图。沃特作证称，白宫没有计划发布一份详细说明 DOGE 总成本或裁员情况的最终行动报告，并称该倡议的成果已经“散布在整个政府中”。但正如劳资关系委员会的删除行为所证明的那样，这些“散布的成果”正在被抹除。