As Democrats ramp up their attacks on Elon Musk and DOGE, newly unsealed court documents show that Musk surprisingly is not in charge of the cost-cutting initiative.

The Tesla CEO's role in the Trump administration has become a source of controversy, with Democrats accusing Musk and DOGE of sowing chaos with sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. Musk's critics also say he has conflicts of interest because his companies have billions in government contracts.

While the nature of Musk's position is unclear, the White House has said he does not have any power to make decisions. The administration has instead named Amy Gleason, a former nurse and health care technology executive, as the DOGE administrator. 

DOGE's real boss revealed

Musk's role in the Trump administration has prompted a violent political backlash that has seen attacks on Tesla dealerships around the country.

On the legal front, Democrats have been storming the courts to stop DOGE, with some success. Last week, a federal judge appointed by Barack Obama ordered DOGE to start releasing documents to a Democrat-aligned watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Another federal judge, Tanya Chutkan, recently ruled that DOGE must release records and answer questions about its cost-cutting operations, in a victory for 14 Democratic states suing to block DOGE from firing federal employees. Chutkan rose to national prominence as the judge overseeing Trump's since-dropped criminal case over "election interference."

Musk is considered a special government employee, and he has become one of Trump's closest advisers. While Musk is the public face of DOGE's efforts, he has no actual role within the organization, according to DOGE administrator Gleason.

Just a senior advisor

Gleason worked in the first Trump administration for the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which Trump restructured and renamed DOGE in January. In a recent court filing, she said she reports directly to the White House through chief of staff Susie Wiles.

"Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House," Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration.

"In my role at USDS, I oversee all of USDS’s employees and detailees to USDS from other agencies," Gleason wrote in her declaration. "I report to the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles."

No formal authority

Gleason's claim echoes the White House's declaration, in February, that Musk is a senior White House adviser with "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."

Shedding more light on DOGE's structure, Gleason explained that individual "DOGE teams" at federal agencies report to those agencies' heads and not her.

"Every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency. The DOGE Team members – whether employees of the agency or detailed to the agency – thus report to the agency heads or their designees, not to me or anyone else at USDS," she wrote.

Regardless of what Musk does or does not have control of, it's become clear that Democrats intend to make his government role into a major talking point going forward.