On Monday night, the Justice Department doubled down and refused to answer U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s question from a hearing on Monday morning about how many people were fired from the federal government this past Friday.

Further, a White House official, in a declaration submitted along with the notice, insisted that Elon Musk “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself” — and is neither running nor an employee of DOGE.

This, despite the fact that Donald Trump announced days after the 2024 election that Musk “will lead the Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE").“

The Monday night filings from DOJ came in a multistate challenge led by New Mexico and brought against Musk and DOGE.

Within the seven agencies at issue in the states’ request for a temporary restraining order, DOJ also asserted that it could not say what "personnel actions" the seven agencies at issue might take in the next two weeks.

The seven agencies are the Office of Personnel Management and departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, and Commerce.

As to Musk, the White House official stated that Musk is a senior advisor to the president in the "White House Office" and is neither an employee nor the administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service or the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization.