Fight Over Musk’s Role in Shuttering USAID Is Kept Alive by Judge
Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House in February.
Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg
A lawsuit accusing billionaire Elon Musk of unlawfully directing the closing of the US Agency for International Development can move ahead over the Trump administration’s objections, a Maryland federal judge ruled.
US District Judge Theodore Chuang on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s request to toss out a lawsuit that alleges Musk exercised power within the US government that’s reserved for Senate-confirmed officials. The judge also left intact a claim that the Department of Government Efficiency project spearheaded by Musk unlawfully took steps to dissolve an agency created by Congress.