By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia are seeking detailed information about the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and some 40 other people, to carry out firings of federal workers and dismantling of federal agencies.

They also are requesting detailed information about DOGE’s access to sensitive data, its use of artificial intelligence, the resumes and training of its staff and its communications related to Musk-held entities including SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla.

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“The Administration and Mr. Musk have hidden behind a veil of secrecy as they systematically dismantle the federal government of the United States,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to DOGE administrator Amy Gleason accompanying the FOIA request, which was obtained by the AP. “The American people deserve answers, and we are committed to using every tool at our disposal to expose the truth about DOGE’s operations.”

They are seeking expedited review of the request, with a response within 20 days.

The FOIA request is the latest in an escalating confrontation between Congress and the executive branch as President Donald Trump is rapidly slashing routine aspects of the federal government by doing away with thousands of workers and unwinding various longstanding agencies and services.

The Oversight Committee Democrats have already issued a formal request for information from the Republican president’s administration on Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, which is pending. Their attempt to subpoena Musk was rejected by committee Republicans, who hold the majority in Congress.

While generally anyone can file a FOIA request, the Democrats on the panels are utilizing the avenues at their disposal as the minority party to press for oversight of the Republican administration any way they can. It’s also a potential step toward more binding measures, including legal action.

In the FOIA request, Raskin and Connolly, who are the ranking Democrats on the committees, wrote that the information is necessary “to provide answers to the many open questions and an explanation to the public.”

They said, “There exist possible questions concerning the government’s integrity regarding DOGE’s operations, formation, and activity, which form the basis of this request, as many of DOGE’s actions may be outside the bounds of federal law.”

It’s unclear if the Trump administration will respond.

Trump and Musk have shown little regard for the protests coming from Democrats — and some Republicans — in Congress as their teams march across the federal government. Musk has vowed transparency, but the Democrats noted he has met privately with House and Senate Republicans.

The Trump administration is purging employees, shuttering federal agencies and otherwise disrupting operations in the name of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Some 100 lawsuits have been filed, with judges slowing and stopping some actions, while allowing others.

In the sweeping request, the Democrats seek four main types of information about the authority involved with DOGE’s activity: its access to sensitive data; the guidance and decision-making around its firings of federal employees; the potential conflicts of interest around its leadership; and its internal communications.

They seek the names, job titles and qualifications of DOGE staffers who have “been granted access to personally identifiable or sensitive information” since inauguration day, Jan. 20, and their purpose for doing so.

Additionally, they want to know about the various computer programs, including but “not limited to, artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), your agency is using to store, process or analyze personally identifiable or sensitive information or data.”

The request seeks all DOGE directives, guidance and analyses around the firing of federal workers, including the dismissal of inspectors general, and the undoing of various government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education and others.

Democrats are also requesting information about DOGE’s authority to direct and execute these directives as well as details around the funding of DOGE operations.

Musk, DOGE administrator Gleason and some 40 other employees are listed in the FOIA request, which seeks information about their resumes, salaries, any conflict of interest waivers and any non-disclosure agreements involving their employment.

The request also seeks all communication from those workers, including via text message, and various messaging platforms, and specifically around key words including Musk-related entities SpaceX, Starlink, Twitter, Tesla and others.

By DAVID McHUGH, LORNE COOK and EMMA BURROWS, Associated Press

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — With U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt, Kyiv’s European allies are weighing whether to seize $300 billion in frozen Russian assets and use the money to compensate Ukraine, support its military and help rebuild shattered homes and towns.

For now, the assets are still on ice, with opponents of seizure warning that the move could violate international law and destabilize financial markets.

Here are key things to know about the debate surrounding the Kremlin assets that were frozen shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022:

FILE – From left, European Council President Antonio Costa, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)

What are the assets and where are they?

Originally, the money was in short-term government bonds held as reserves for the Russian central bank. By now, most of the bonds have have matured and turned into cash piling up in custodian banks. Some 210 billion euros are in European Union member states, with the biggest chunk, some 183 billion euros, at Euroclear, a Belgian clearinghouse for financial transactions. Other amounts are at financial institutions in Great Britain, Japan, France, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore.

So far, the Group of Seven democracies have used the interest on the frozen cash to fund $50 billion in upfront assistance to Ukraine by borrowing against future interest income. That solution avoids legal and financial complications associated with outright confiscating the money and giving it it to Ukraine.

Who is calling for seizing the assets and why?

Some of Ukraine’s friends — Poland, the United Kingdom and the Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — want to do more by taking the principal as well, given the enormous damage Russia has done. The World Bank estimates that reconstructing Ukraine will cost $524 billion over 10 years, already more than the total of the Russian assets. If one or more Western governments resists seizing the assets, the others that want to could still go ahead.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s allies in Europe are contemplating stepping up their financial aid in the wake of statements by U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe must take care of its own security. Several of those allies — France and Belgium, for instance — are already saddled with troublesome debt levels above 100% of gross domestic product.

Why do France, Germany and Belgium oppose seizing the assets?

European leaders say seizing the assets now would mean they couldn’t be used as a bargaining chip in any peace deal or to help enforce a ceasefire.

French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said Tuesday that it was against international law to seize assets in central banks. If Russian assets were seized without legal grounds, “it could pose a risk to European financial stability,” he said.

“I advocate great caution when it comes to those frozen assets,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said at a March 6 EU summit. “At the moment, that is actually a chicken that also lays golden eggs. Those windfall profits are going to Ukraine.”

Opponents of seizure also fear that countries and investors would hesitate to use European financial institutions if they are afraid assets could be seized, undermining the euro’s role as an international currency for state reserves.

More specifically, governments worry that countries such as Saudi Arabia and China may sell European government bonds in response, said Elina Ribakova, an economist with the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. That would raise borrowing costs for governments already deep in debt.

She favors seizure, however, arguing that the European Central Bank has tools to thwart any unjustified bond selloff by purchasing government bonds.

Also looming over the issue are memories of the 2010-2012 European government debt crisis, in which borrowing costs spiked and raised concerns the euro currency could break up.

There is a “good deal of PTSD in the EU around messing with the EU sovereign bond market” because of that, said Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Would confiscating the assets be legal under international law?

Some experts argue that seizure would be an appropriate “countermeasure.” That’s a specific legal term referring to an action that would normally be illegal but which is justified as a means to push Russia to stop its own violations of international law.

“There is no dilemma between using an aggressor’s assets to protect its victim and maintaining a commitment to the rules-based order,” wrote Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Britain’s former ambassador to Belarus, in a legal analysis.

Other scholars say confiscation would not be a legitimate countermeasure.

One reason: justifying a countermeasure as compensation for damages — instead of merely as pressure to behave — would be “a very significant expansion of the way we have used countermeasures in the past,” said Ingrid Brunk, professor of international law at Vanderbilt University Law School. ”I would term it as a violation of international law on countermeasures.”

Additionally, Brunk said international law grants strong protection to central bank reserves against seizure — a principle that has been “absolutely sacrosanct for a century.”

“At a time when countries agree on almost nothing, this is a widely, universally accepted rule,” Brunk said, cautioning against ”destabilizing one of the few ironclad bases for the international financial system.”

Keatinge said the legal question is a “50-50 call.” It boils down to a question of “political will.”

Have other countries’ frozen assets been confiscated in the past?

Frozen state assets were used to compensate victims of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and Iran’s 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Those actions were legally justified because they were part of post-conflict peace deals: a U.N. resolution in the case of Iraq, and by diplomatic accords in the case of Iran, noted Brunk.

What has Russia said or done about the frozen assets?

The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the seizure of Russian assets would be illegitimate and erode investors’ confidence. “We view those intentions as unlawful, and any attempt to fulfill them would entail very serious legal consequences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier this month.

Russia could, in theory, seize the assets of the estimated 1,800 Western companies that continue to do business in Russia. Recent legislation would enable state seizure of companies based in countries designated as “unfriendly,” Russian news media report.

However, there’s less to seize on Russia’s end. Foreign companies have suffered more than $170 billion in losses since 2022, often as they decided to leave Russia or scale back there, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.

Burrows reported from London. Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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