John,

I wanted to reach out today on Trump’s 100th day in office. Many of today’s headlines will be focused on the Trump administration and the ways in which they’ve violated the law and undercut democratic institutions during these past few months.

Instead of doing that, I’d like to spend some time giving you an update on CREW’s work to hold the Trump administration accountable in court.

We have four major ongoing lawsuits:

1. Alongside our partners at Democracy Forward, we’re suing to block Donald Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers and replace them with political loyalists.
2. We’re suing DOGE to force them to comply with FOIA requests and federal records laws in order to get information for the public about DOGE’s operations and activities.
3. We’re suing the CDC because, under RFK Jr.'s leadership, they closed the entire office that responds to Freedom of Information Act requests, despite the fact that they’re required by law to respond to those requests.
4. We’re suing the Office of Management and Budget for taking down the website where the apportionment of federal money is publicly recorded, which they are required by law to maintain.

Our case challenging Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers is all about ensuring that the key government functions that Americans rely on—like ensuring clean food and water—remain intact. That lawsuit is moving forward, but it hasn’t moved as quickly as our other cases that focus on government transparency.

The DOGE records lawsuit has been moving very quickly, and we’ve already had some encouraging early victories. We filed our lawsuit after we received no response to the 60+ Freedom of Information Act requests we filed asking for basic information about DOGE. DOGE cannot control and destroy major government functions without oversight or meaningful transparency into its operations. Only if Americans know what DOGE is doing can they evaluate that work and push back where needed.

That’s why we went to court to defend Americans’ right to information about their efforts. DOGE argued that it is not an agency subject to FOIA, but a judge rejected that argument and ordered them to comply with the requests and just last week granted us discovery–which was a major victory.

That win is now stayed, because the government appealed, but we’re going to keep fighting for answers until we get them.

We filed our lawsuit against the CDC to challenge RFK Jr.’s decision to close their FOIA office. Given the ongoing outbreaks of measles and other infectious diseases, it’s crucial that Americans have transparency into the CDC’s operations and DOGE’s apparent interference in public health agencies. Claiming that they can’t respond to records requests because they fired everyone in the office that responds to those requests is illegal—and unacceptable.

Last week, we filed a motion asking a judge to grant expedited processing of our requests and that the government assign sufficient resources to comply with FOIA requirements and process our requests to the CDC in a timely manner.

Finally, we have our lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget. We sued the OMB after they took down the website where the apportionment of federal money is publicly disclosed. This is in the weeds, but it’s important. Here’s why: apportionment is the process of the government sending the money that Congress has said they have to spend to the agencies that will carry out that spending.

So when reports emerged that Trump directed OMB to withhold money from programs and agencies he wishes to defund, and the OMB took down the website where information about funding is published, it became apparent that they were attempting to break the law and ignore Congress’ funding decisions. This was also a major flashpoint during Trump’s first term, when he illegally directed the OMB to withhold aid from Ukraine during a series of events that led to his first impeachment. In fact, that’s part of the reason why this website is required in the first place.

We also just asked the court to order the apportionments database be made public again and find that its removal violated the law—on an expedited timeline.

John, we’re fighting the Trump administration on a lot of legal issues right now. We’re confident that the law is on our side, but the fact is that suing the United States government takes a lot of resources. That’s why we need you on our side too.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW