Lawsuit Seeks Public Records from Office of Personnel Management 

Washington, D.C. – Today, Democracy Forward filed suit against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to compel the production of documents related to the Trump-Vance administration’s dramatic and unprecedented actions to gut the nation’s non-partisan, independent civil service and to seek to target federal employees who supported equity efforts across the government. Democracy Forward has filed more than 25 legal actions since January 20, securing major wins on issues ranging from blocking immigration enforcement in houses of worship; overturning the freezing of federal funds to programs across the nation, and halting the termination of civil servants.

The Office of Personnel Management has played a central role–along with Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)–in executing the Trump-Vance administration’s assault on the civil service. These attacks began just after inauguration, and included OPM sending a range of communications, including communications asking federal employees to “report” colleagues for involvement in equity initiatives and guidance to agencies regarding the President’s executive order that seeks to end all equity programs in the federal government. Parts of this executive order have now been halted nationwide in a suit filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of higher education officials, restaurant workers, and the city of Baltimore.

“For an administration that professes to care about transparency, we are seeing nothing but secrets and deception as harmful policies are being proposed that are seeking to wreak havoc over the American people. The incoming Trump-Vance administration has pledged ‘maximum transparency,’ yet they are failing to meet basic transparency standards long required by our laws,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “FOIA requests are some of our most simple and basic opportunities to implement governmental transparency laws. The public has a right to know how its government is operating and who is calling the shots and our lawsuit will seek to compel information that is being withheld.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes after Democracy Forward submitted January 24 requests with OPM for public records relating to the tumultuous first days of the Trump Administration. To date, OPM has acknowledged the requests but failed to respond with responsive records within the time period required by the Freedom of Information Act and our lawsuit seeks to compel disclosure of documents that the public has the right to know about.

To learn more about these orders and communications, Democracy Forward filed requests for information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act that seek:

  • All reports on plans submitted to OPM pursuant to its memo to calling on agencies to close DEIA offices, executive reductions in force, terminate all DEIA-related trainings or contracts, and more;

  • All correspondence sent by the administration’s new “DEIA Truth” tipline, as well as received from government agencies;

  • All directives or guidance to OPM from the White House and DOGE;

  • All calendar invitations and communications of OPM Chief of Staff Amanda Scales–who previously worked for Musk at xAI–with DOGE; with the administration’s OPM landing team; with entities outside government.

On January 20, Democracy Forward announced that it had launched a series of federal and state public records investigations to uncover information the public has the right to know about the Trump-Vance administration’s “shock and awe” approach to Day 1 and the widely reported irregular and chaotic Transition Team activities. This lawsuit is the first thus far seeking court orders compelling the production of documents filed by Democracy Forward.

For more information about Democracy Forward, please visit www.democracyforward.org.

– # # # –