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Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., are calling for an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously led by Elon Musk, as talks have heated up among Democrats to launch a probe into the multibillionaire.
“I had no specific plan,” Raskin told Digital about the potential investigations. “Look…DOGE was a catastrophe for America, and at least one committee, I feel pretty certain, will investigate it. It needs to investigate it.”
Musk has emerged as a potential target of Democratic oversight, with some lawmakers calling for scrutiny of his time as head of the DOGE.
The calls for an investigation come as Democrats have started rallying the party to look into corruption under the Trump administration after coming out victorious in midterms.
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Democrats are calling for an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously led by Elon Musk. (Getty Images, File)
The tech CEO helped launch DOGE at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term to root out waste and be more transparent about the federal government’s spending.
DOGE’s efforts included deferred resignations and buyouts of employees at federal agencies and contributed to a significant downsizing of the federal workforce, which contracted by about 250,000 employees during 2025, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Calls for investigations into DOGE also started over concerns about the department allegedly having access to Americans’ sensitive information.
“I mean the whole thing was premised on a lie, and our private information was completely compromised by it,” Raskin said.
Despite Pritzker saying he had never “heard anything like that” about a potential probe of Musk and DOGE, he agreed that DOGE is worthy of an investigation.
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker agrees that DOGE is worthy of an investigation. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, File)
“I think there should be a lot of inspection of what DOGE did,” Pritzker told Digital. “I think that was pretty awful. “
But Pritzker didn’t seem so sure that needing an investigation into DOGE also warranted an investigation into Musk himself.
“I don’t know about focusing on one person,” Pritzker said when asked about investigating Musk.
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Democratic lawmakers have also suggested looking into Musk’s companies’ multibillion-dollar contracts with the federal government and, more recently, his role in cutting internet access to the Ukrainian military.
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After the midterm elections resulted in a sweeping blue wave, Democrats in both chambers of Congress have vowed to use investigative committees and subpoena powers to probe not only Musk, but Trump and much of his administration — including trying to impeach Trump.
Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
