A left-wing coverage think reservoir in Washington, D. C., is supporting a legal challenge against the , Trump administration’s Department of Government Performance, or Expand, operating on millions of dollars donated by the base owned by businessman Democrat donor , George Soros.
” Governing for Impact only has one known donor in the entire world.” It’s really him because there are no other known contributors besides Soros, according to Parker Thayer, an analyst for the Capital Research Center who first reported the Soros-linked project in a string on X.
How do Expand legitimate episodes get influenced by Governing for Impact?
Following President , Donald Trump‘s win in November, GFI began publishing notes on stopping Schedule F cuts and ,” challenging immoral impoundments” , , both of which have been content to individual claims since Trump’s Day One professional purchases. The most recent move by GFI includes laying out a number of legitimate ideas that DOGE is ineligible to serve as a national agency. And companies that have sued the Trump presidency over DOGE’s authority appear to have taken GFI’s tips.
One memo , posted , to GFI’s web site titled” Challenging DOGE”, for instance, lays out a legal route map asserting that DOGE “lacks constitutional authority to act as an company” and therefore” could enter Economy Act partnerships”, citing the 1932 law that allows governmental agencies to share resources.
Within a month, the same legal argument was used in a lawsuit brought against DOGE by left-leaning legal advocacy groups, including in a case titled AFL-CIO v. Department of Labor.
Lawyers for AFL-CIO argued in a Feb. 7 filing that the head of an agency can order orders from other federal agencies in accordance with the Economy Act.
” DOGE is purely a creature of executive order, however, and therefore cannot be an agency”, the lawyers said.
Notably, AFL-CIO and other associated plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation. According to information gathered from Linked In, Rachael Klarman, the current executive director of GFI, served as a legal policy analyst for DFF from 2017 to 2019. The DFF board is led by Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias.
Expanding the legal front
The State Democracy Defenders Action, or SDDA, a group founded by liberal attorney Norm Eisen, is another significant player supported by Soros in the fight against DOGE. InfluenceWatch reports that the Open Society Policy Center and Sixteen Thirty Fund have provided more than$ 1.5 million in funding to the SDDA.
Early this month, SDDA sued Musk and DOGE, alleging that Musk’s behavior was against the appointments clause.
Despite the ferocious litigation involving DOGE, the difficulties persist. On Feb. 15, U. S. District Judge John Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, issued a ruling in the American Federation of Labor lawsuit that marked a win for the government waste-cutting program. Bates ruled that DOGE could continue , accessing sensitive records from multiple federal agencies.  ,
However, GFI recently hired additional attorneys, including Adam Grogg, a former Office of Management and Budget official, to expand its legal defense of DOGE.
A judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday declined to grant a restraining order against it, giving the Trump administration a minor victory as it fights the lawsuits brought on by the newly established spending advisory body. Former President Barack Obama appointee Tanya Chutkan claimed that the 14 states that requested the temporary restraining order against DOGE and senior White House official Elon Musk did not demonstrate that they would” suffer imminent, irreparable harm” without it.
While DOGE has managed to secure some legal victories, it has also suffered some setbacks.
On Feb. 14, U. S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, extended her restraining order barring DOGE from accessing Treasury Department systems, citing cybersecurity and constitutional concerns.
Soros’s influence through Governing for Impact
During the Biden administration, GFI played a major role in drafting regulations for the former president, with over 20 federal rules reportedly influenced by the group’s policy memos.
Tom Perriello, a Democratic former U. S. representative, played a key role in the establishment of GFI in 2019. Prior to joining GFI’s four-person board, Pirelli also held the position of Open Society-U’s executive director. S from 2018 to 2023.
In 2019, GFI leadership eventually changed to Klarman. Underscoring the close connections within this network, her father Michael Klarman and her uncle, billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, collectively contributed over$ 20, 000 to Perriello’s congressional campaigns between 2008 and 2010,  , according , to Open Secrets.
Musk and the Trump administration’s updated defense
In response to the mounting legal challenges to DOGE, the Trump administration clarified this week in court filings that Musk is not the DOGE administrator but that he is a senior adviser to Trump. The distinction could be crucial in upcoming court cases, as the lawsuit Chutkan is presiding over in Washington seeks to prevent Musk specifically from having broad access to government data and decision-making power.
Despite the legal onslaught, Musk and his allies continue to push DOGE’s mission forward, emphasizing its role in cutting government waste and increasing efficiency.
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Since Trump assumed office on Jan. 20, DOGE has implemented significant cost-cutting measures across federal agencies. As of Tuesday, DOGE reports approximately$ 37.69 billion in savings, targeting a total of$ 1 trillion by July 4, 2026.
GFI and Open Society contacted The Washington Examiner for comment.
