DOGE Emails Went Out to Federal Judges by Mistake

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Gabe Whisnant is Deputy Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in South Carolina. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2023, he directed daily publications in North and South Carolina. As an executive editor, Gabe led award-winning coverage of Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof's capture in 2015, along with coverage of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. You can get in touch with Gabe by emailing g.whisnant@newsweek.com. Find him on Twitter @GabeWhisnant.

Deputy Weekend Editor

Emails from Elon Musk's allies were sent to numerous federal government entities, including a judge overseeing a lawsuit aimed at blocking these messages.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss noted that judges across the country received these emails, likely by mistake, prior to the dissemination of the "fork in the road" message from Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Judge Moss disregarded the email, according to the Associated Press.

Moss is presiding over a court challenge filed by federal employees who claim that Musk's allies set up a server to send the emails without adequate privacy protections, exposing their information to potential hacking.

Moss declined to immediately block future messages, citing a recently completed privacy assessment by the government.

More to follow.

Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this story.

Emails from Elon Musk's allies were sent to numerous federal government entities, including a judge overseeing a lawsuit aimed at blocking these messages.