Waiting for Doge

This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. The time is approximately 11.15 a.m. About to start a consensual telephone call with Dr. Daiwa Zhang. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. I've never seen that much evidence in my entire career, and I don't think we'll ever see that much evidence again. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS. and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau from Bloomberg Podcasts starting on February 13th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every time I hear Peace Corps, I have no idea why, but I always think about Cat Stevens' Peace Train. You know, on the peace train. I think of the Frank Zappa song, Who Needs the Peace Corps. Oh, kind of relevant to what we're talking about today. Play the song. I'm investigative journalist Jason Leopold. I spend most of my days getting documents from the government. I'm attorney Matt Topic, and I fight them in court to open their files when they don't want to. From Bloomberg and No Smiling, this is Disclosure, a podcast about buying loose government secrets, the Freedom of Information Act, and the unexpected places that takes us. So, Matt, I just want to give you a heads up. I'm in the office today, but we may be interrupted by a fire drill, which means that I will immediately have to exit the office. This is not like I'm in high school where I'm like, fire drill! I'm gone. No need to return to school. Oh, you just went home then. I like it. Yeah, I just went home. Here, I actually have to come back to the office. But in the meantime, we've got Peace Corps to talk about. So back in April, I saw a headline. Doge eyes cuts to Peace Corps with in-person visit and records access. And I was like, Doge at the Peace Corps? As far as I was concerned, two months into the Trump administration, you can never ask too many questions about what Doge was up to. Basically, what I started out doing just, I don't know, a week after Trump was sworn in as president, I immediately began covering Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Doge. The government is just like the DMV that got big. When you say let's have the government do something, you should think, do you want the DMV to do it? I've instructed him to go check out education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military. So I was following Doge at this time and also following the individuals who worked with Doge. Young men and women in tech, many who had worked for Musk. And what they were doing was seizing control of these agencies to essentially dismantle the agencies under the banner of efficiency. The administration, and we believe driven largely by Elon Musk's priorities, really took a sledgehammer to the work we're doing. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Early targets were the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Education, the Department of Defense, and especially foreign aid programs. Programs like the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. In February, Doge went in there. And again, when I say Doge, you have to think of it as four or five kids. They called them the Doge kids. They were in their 20s, have zero experience working in government, went into USAID, took over the agency and they gained access to the data. They got a list of all the contracts. They fired staff and essentially, piece by piece, just dismantled this entire agency that's been around for decades. DOGE cut more than 80% of USAID programs. Basically overnight, programs for HIV and AIDS treatment and prevention, malaria, child health care, gone. Thousands of grants and contracts were halted or completely terminated. And now we're getting an idea that these moves at USAID are already having a life and death impact around the world. One group, Impact Counter, estimates that the program cuts have already resulted in more than 600,000 deaths around the world, including more than 400,000 children. And this dismantling took place over weekends, right? When no one was working at these agencies. And there's so much secrecy around Doge. So I decided I want to find out what's going on behind the scenes. And then I saw this headline in The Guardian on April 4th. Think about it. It's the Peace Corps. It wasn't like Doge is going into the NSA. It was just like, really? They're going into the Peace Corps? Like, what's going on there? So the very next day on April 5th, I filed this request with Peace Corps. And you have to remember, let's just go back to April. It seems like a long time ago, but the public really wasn't getting an opportunity to visualize what a visit from Doge more or less entailed. I mean, we kind of heard bits and pieces of it. You know, they were going into the agencies and demanding data, but really what was happening behind the scenes, and I kind of wanted to capture that through documents. Yeah, and Doge transparency is an issue that manifests itself in lots of different places. I mean, they were taking the position that they're not subject to FOIA because they're within the executive office of the president, and, you know, that would largely let them operate in secret while having, let's just call it a significant impact on the federal government. Exactly. So I asked for a whole bunch of different records. I wanted to get a list of all the Doge employees who are onboarded at Peace Corps. One reason for that, by the way, is that other than a few names, the identities of those who are connected to Doge was a secret. So journalists were kind of scrambling to figure out who these people were. I asked for a list of all the words that were banned or prohibited or restricted from being used at Peace Corps in response to Trump's DEI executive order. Any requests for data that Doge had sought. All communications that referenced Doge. So what kind of records did you get? So it didn't take that long for the agency to respond, but I entered into a negotiation with them. Something that I don't often do, Matt, as you know. because I wanted to get some records quickly. So I narrowed the request a bit. I told them that I would accept these rolling releases, right, where they can send me documents every month. And so the first batch of records I received, there were 54 pages of emails from about mid-February to mid-April. And what I got was a really great snapshot of what it's like to be inside of an agency waiting for Doge. Ah, waiting for Godoge. So where do we start? Let's go back to February. The Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. is a glassy mid-rise in Noma. Its facade, a rippling curtain of windows. Inside, I imagine staffers who keep the organization's global volunteer programs running are following front-page news closely as Doge descends on agencies all around them. Breaking news of the future of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Less than two miles away, on February 1st, USAID's website goes dark and staff emails shut down. Staffers were told not to come into work today at the agency's D.C. headquarters. Nine days later, just down the street from USAID... Protesters gathered outside the CFPB's headquarters in D.C. ...dose shuttered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters and demanded employees stay home. You hear everybody in the background, let us learn. Doge is inching closer. They're going to put the EPA in a wheelchair, too. On February 12th, landing at the Environmental Protection Agency. And now it's February 14th, Valentine's Day. An email goes out to Peace Corps staffers. And for the first time, Doge has entered inboxes at the Peace Corps. Not literally. This is just the first email about Doge, according to my records. I mean, it kind of cracked me up a bit because the subject line says, Matt, welcome team exercise. And it says, team, we will be running an exercise of our welcome team SOP, meaning standard operating procedure. You will be contacted at some point during the exercise to simulate the convening of the team to welcome in simulated Doge team participants. Hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. I got to unpack this. So they know Doge is going to come at some point. Right. So they have like a designated welcome team. Okay. So not too strange, but then they're doing drills. Drills. Like the fire drill that I have coming up here, Matt. It sounds like what would happen if like the head of state from another country was coming for a visit. You would have all these formal protocols and you would rehearse and all that. And that's what they're doing at the Peace Corps, getting ready for Doge to come visit. Right. I mean, it's remarkable. I guess it makes sense from the agency's perspective, like their future existence is on the line here, right? Doge may be coming in and wiping them out. So I could see why they would be taking the visit very seriously. So who sends the email? Do we know? Well, all the recipients and the sender, their names are redacted under a privacy exemption. I'm not terribly interested in, you know, in the names, but really, again, I wanted to get these records and I wanted to try to get them quickly. Okay, so you get the welcome Doge team email. What else did you get? It's more emails about the buildup to Doge's arrival. And so there's another email in here, subject line, Doge laptop preparation. I'm like, what's that about? That's two weeks later. But this email says, see below for the laptop preparation statement you requested. And so there's a couple of scenarios here. It says, scenario one, Matt, PC, meaning Peace Corps, receives Doge names in advance. So if that happens, laptops will be immediately available to Doge staff upon arrival at headquarters. All laptops will be pre-configured with the identified software install, accounts created, and access is granted. Scenario two, Doge arrives unannounced. Four laptops have been set aside and pre-imaged in preparation of Doge's arrival. Upon receiving the names of the Doge staff, hosting services will manually create their accounts. Upon creation of their accounts, the service desk will immediately configure each laptop, load profiles and install software OCIO that the office of the chief information officer will require 90 minutes from receipt of the Doge team names to laptop prep completion This is amazing. This is painting a picture for me, not of an agency that's going to be confrontational with Doge, but instead is going to try to like be as accommodating as possible, I guess presumably with the hopes that that will help them survive. Look how quick we, look, we already have your laptops ready, sir, right? To me, it's kind of a, it seems like they're being compliant. This is fascinating to me because this is painting a very clear picture of the impact that Doge is having on this particular agency. And I mean, there's whatever people say publicly, and there's a line of FOIA court decisions that sort of talk about the idea of like, FOIA is really important for people to understand like what's really going on, to understand whether there's a difference between what the government is saying publicly and what the government is saying privately. And that is a core value that FOIA is supposed to be furthering. And what you've got here is, I mean, it's vividly clear how Peace Corps was viewing this just by seeing behind the scenes how they're preparing to deal with this. Right. And to be clear, they're not doing anything wrong, but it's like, wow, you know, look at what they are doing just to prepare for their arrival. I think my own personal view is there is something wrong with the scenario in which agencies, instead of like doing their work, are having to obsess over these kinds of details for fear that they're just going to be promptly like wiped out. I mean, that's we ought to know that. I mean, that's a cost that is being paid. That's an agency that isn't fulfilling its mission. And, you know, the people can dispute whether it's a mission that ought to be served or not or whether it's obsolete and whether they're doing a good job or not or whether we should get rid of them. But the reality is that the work of Peace Corps was clearly impacted by having to deal with all this, which shouldn't be surprising, but it's very vivid to actually see that manifest itself. Totally. And so just about a week later, now we're in March 3rd. Are the cherry blossoms out? This is beginning of March. I think this is probably like cherry blossom time, isn't it? Yeah, I'm visualizing it. So another email, subject line, Doge welcome team meeting. And again, the sender and recipient of these emails, those names are redacted. Peace Corps welcome team. The Doge team has arrived at Peace Corps headquarters. This is not a drill. Please join this welcome team call now. Matt, this is not a drill. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. How many exclamation points? No, no exclamation points. No way. Just a period. So I should say that's my emphasis. But I guess you can read it this way since there is no explanation. Oh, my God. Well, by the way, speaking of drill, that is an actual fire drill that's happening right now. This is not a drill. No, this is a drill. This is not a drill. I literally have to go. I got to go. I'm going to be yelled at. Okay, I guess we're going to a break now. The news doesn't stop on the weekends. Context changes constantly. And now Bloomberg is the place to stay on top of it all. Hi, I'm David Gurra. Join us every Saturday and Sunday for the new Bloomberg This Weekend. I'm Christina Ruffini. We'll bring you the latest headlines, in-depth analysis, and big interviews. All the stories that hit home on your days off. And I'm Lisa Matteo. Watch and listen to Bloomberg This Weekend for thoughtful, enlightening conversations about business, lifestyle, people, and culture. On Saturday mornings, we put the past week's events into context, examining what happened in the markets and the world. Then on Sundays, we speak with journalists, columnists, and key political figures to prepare you for the week ahead. Join us as soon as you wake up and bring us with you wherever your weekend plans take you. Watch us on Bloomberg Television, listen on Bloomberg Radio, stream the show live on the Bloomberg Business app, or listen to the podcast. That's Bloomberg this weekend, Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7 a.m. Eastern. Make us part of your weekend routine on Bloomberg Television, radio, and wherever you get your podcasts. and he's back matt right before i had to quickly exit for a fire drill we were talking about these emails and i actually think the email that says this is not a drill is actually a drill because fast forwarding four days later it says in the subject line exercise and there's like stars next to exercise. Doge team in the building. So also I said that like I read this email as if it had exclamation points. Right. And actually, let me read it to you without the exclamation points. Exercise, exercise, exercise. Peace Corps welcome team. The Doge team has arrived at Peace Corps headquarters. This is not a drill. Please join this welcome team call now. I don't think they were ever going to be excited to have Doge. They're just like, hey, everyone, Doge is coming. This is not a drill. The leader is here. The leader is here. Doge team has arrived at police corps headquarters, okay? This is not a drill, okay? So now we're going to jump to a March 3rd email. This is the same day as this is not a drill email. Okay. So the subject line of this email is Doge access to PC systems. Now, this is just taking that subject line and, you know, kind of building off that. That is really important because what has been presented as highly controversial is Doge's access to agency data systems, databases, various data systems. There have been stories published about Doge's access to IRS data, to data at DHS and other agencies. So here is an email that says, Doge access to PC systems. The only name visible here is Joaquin Ferrell. Joaquin is the inspector general of the Peace Corps. The inspector. The inspector general. He's the person. Okay. Correct. Joaquin Ferrell is the inspector general. Has worked at Peace Corps for nearly 17 years. And the email says, Hi, Joaquin. We compiled a list of PC systems and started prepping the procedures for providing access to them if and when requested. The question came up as to whether IG systems should be on that list, meaning the list of systems that Doge can gain access to. Nonetheless, I wanted to reach out to you to determine if IG systems should be included or not. To date, I have not received any guidance in how this is being handled at any agency. I appreciate your thoughts on this matter. So, I mean, inspectors general played, you know, a very important role, a role that is not unlike the role that Doge was purportedly going to be playing, right? The job of the OIG is to root out waste, fraud, and corruption in the agencies that they're involved with, right? Exactly. And they're the watchdogs within government agencies that investigate waste, fraud, and abuse, retaliation, harassment, whistleblower complaints. So what's an inspector general data sets, It's like, what kind of stuff is going to be in there? All their investigative files. So more than 70 government agencies have inspectors general. And so they conduct investigations. They field various complaints and they'll conduct interviews. And so the identities of whoever they conducted interviews with, or if there's any whistleblowers in there, those will be, that will be part of IG files. So the concern may be that you're giving Doge access to information about whistleblowers, which might otherwise be protected or would otherwise be protected. Right, exactly. But it's also important to note here that the Trump administration has fired many inspectors general since January. And the administration is no fan of oversight. They are trying to weaken IGs. So it's scrutiny for everyone else and essentially impunity for us. Right. We're going to come in and we're going to dissect everything that was happening. But for anything that happens going forward on our watch, there's no need for an inspector general to be nosing around causing trouble. Right. We can do that. I'm not saying that that has any direct connection here because no response to that email, or at least if there is one, it wasn't included in our batch of records. So the next set of emails that we see are March 25th to 26th. And it's the first time that we're seeing a thread from safety and security. The timing of this correspondence is interesting because of what's happening at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Three miles west of the Peace Corps, Doge has been trying to take charge of another agency in one of the more unusual encounters. Breaking news about the Department of Government efficiency and the showdown with the U.S. Institute of Peace. So the U.S. Institute of Peace was created in 1984 as an independent nonprofit funded by Congress. It's sort of a nonpartisan agency for studying conflicts and how to resolve them. In late February, an executive order branded U.S. Institute of Peace unnecessary, and the administration wanted to dismantle it. And in mid-March, around the time these Peace Corps emails are circulating, a bunch of board members at the U.S. Institute of Peace are fired, and there was a scuffle. Doge members, accompanied by FBI agents, descend on the U.S. Peace Building, but they can't get in. Two days later, FBI agents visit a security employee at home trying to get access to the U.S. Institute of Peace. They still can't get in. And finally, on their third attempt, Doge enters the building. By apparently threatening the federal contracts for the outside private security firm that the Institute employs, according to Politico. and U.S. Institute of Peace employees then call D.C. police and report Doge members for unlawful entry. Wow. Yeah, I mean, this was a big deal. The cops show up and ultimately help Doge take over the building. So this is sort of a cautionary tale for what happens to these agencies when they resist Doge's efforts. So Institute for Peace is involved in a standoff. Exactly. That's what it was. I love it. And this story more or less suggested it was a standoff. Well, because they're like, no, you're not coming in. And they became the Institute of Confrontation. Right. And I should note, I tried to reach the Institute for comment and didn't get any response because Doge effectively shut it down. So, Matt, these email exchanges are taking place on the heels of a very public confrontation between DOGE and the U.S. Institute of Peace. So let's go back now to the email, March 25th from Peace Corps Safety and Security. And again, this email has a number of redacted names, but there are a couple that are unredacted. And those names are Karen Roberts and Nancy or Bolsheimer So Matt both Nancy and Karen are Trump appointees from the first Trump administration and have decades of experience working in Republican administrations. And now they're back at the Peace Corps for Trump 2.0. So it sounds like what some would call deep state people. Burrowed. They burrowed in. They burrowed. All right, continue. And the email says, Nancy and Karen, Redacted reached out to let me know that you too should be added to the list of people that get notified in the event a Doge team comes to visit Peace Corps headquarters. I have the below contact information for you both. If a team does visit us, we will gather in the Harris-Wofford conference room on the second floor. I think this email is really interesting because of what it says here. If a team does visit us, like, are they unsure if Doge is going to visit Peace Corps and has this planning that has taken place over the past month been in preparation for a potential visit? If, in fact, this is just kind of preemptive on the part of Peace Corps, Matt, that they have now spent a month to kind of prepare for Doge's arrival. I mean, holy cow. Look at how much time they're investing. And they seem to be taking a very different approach from Institute for Peace, who's like, get out of here, you're trespassing. Exactly. We don't want to be like U.S. Institute of fake peace that gets into a confrontation with Doge. They're peace posers, you know? Yeah. They are the hair metal of peace. We are the true hardcore members of peace. We're the slayer of peace. We're the slayer of peace. Yeah. We're not the Def Leppard of peace. Okay. So the next email, now we're jumping to April 3rd. And here's where things start to ramp up. Subject line, detail to the Peace Corps. And it says, team, I received two phone calls. Within five minutes, I wanted to bring it to your attention. Here's what I know. Phone call number one, names redacted. He is serving as a senior advisor at the U.S. Office of Personnel and Management and introduced himself as a White House liaison. He advised me that redacted, so it's a person's name and an email address, will be detailed to the Peace Corps. Phone call number two, and then it says, name redacted, called to get more details on her onboarding. She expects to be onboarded tomorrow with a laptop, badge, and cell phone. She stated she works for GSA and was originally going to be detailed to USAID. She stated she has directives and will be working with the Peace Corps in a leadership position short term. But what's notable here is the mention of Office of Personnel Management and the GSA, right? So the reason I mentioned that is Office of Personnel Management is like the government's human resources department. And so many of the Doge folks, when they were brought into government, that became part of Office of Personnel Management before they were sent out to various agencies. And then GSA was kind of like one of these first agencies where many of them went over to. So I think that's a pretty notable email because it kind of gives us a sense of what's going on behind the scenes in the buildup toward Doge arriving at the Peace Corps. Importantly, it's dated April 3rd, 2025, right? So this is, what is it, a day or two before I filed my request? And then that evening, Karen sends an email. You ready, Matt? I'm ready. I'm excited. Tell me. Doge is arriving tomorrow. It says, Doge will arrive at Peace Corps tomorrow. Most likely early afternoon. We'll need access to our systems and financials. She is being lent to Peace Corps, so she will not be paid by Peace Corps. Interesting. We do not know how long she will be with us. She'll be working over the weekend. She will let Nancy or I know her arrival time, and we will greet her on the first floor and take her to see another person whose name is redacted on the second floor to get her badge so she can get underway. She will need a computer with access and most likely will need an office or conference room to work out of. We gave Allison a heads up. That's Allison Green, the CEO. And she indicated we would huddle tomorrow morning to discuss the details and review the plan. Best Karen and Nancy. They're getting ready to review the plan. Does this start to have like an office space kind of feel to you? Like it's the Bobs? Yes, it definitely feels that way. Particularly like she will need a conference room. And it's funny because, you know, when I was reporting on CFPB, that's essentially where, you know, the Doge folks hold up. Like in a conference room, They papered over the windows in the conference room, make sure nobody could, you know, could peek in. So then, you know, the rest of the emails in this kind of chain, the chief information officer says, I'm kicking off the support process now and be ready to go. Looking forward to meeting with her. And then, you know, another email. Thanks, Karen. As you know, the office next to me is available. Exclamation point. Probably the only exclamation point that I think we've seen thus far. Why would there be an exclamation point there? Like, put her here. So now we're going to Friday, April 4th. I'm picturing like if this is a TV show, it's like the screen flashes like now it's that date. And then the next day begins. Yeah. This is the moment we've been training for. We've been training for this moment. Can they feel it coming in the air tonight or today? Oh, we need the drum roll. Matt, you got to go. Yeah, exactly. Can we call it like Peace Corps versus like Death Corps? Oh, yeah. Doge, the Death Corps. I'm eagerly awaiting how this goes. To tech journalist Cara Swisher. And the tech industry is running wild. You know, they've gotten what they wanted and they've seen a huge run up in their stock prices. This will be a place where every weekend you can count on one essential conversation to help make sense of the world. So please join me, listen and subscribe to The Michelle Hussain Show from Bloomberg Weekend, wherever you get your podcasts. You certainly ask interesting questions. Friday, April 4th, the day Doge is scheduled to arrive. And around noon, the chief information officer sends around a note about Doge's arrival. Cooperation is key. The subject line of the email is system point of contact, access for Doge team members, when, if they arrive. Good morning and happy Friday, Team Peace Corps. See that, Matt? Like they're embracing that. Team Peace Corps or Team Peace. Yeah. We will be welcoming the Doge folks this afternoon. We have been made aware that they intend to work on the weekends. You know, I have to do the Loverboy reference. Everybody's working on the weekend. Yeah. Well, but that's, you've completely inverted what that song is about. The line is everybody's working for the weekend, isn't it? Like you're getting your work done on Friday so you can party on the weekend. Really? Is that it? I think so. Oh, you're right, Matt. Everybody's working for the weekend. Yeah. So we have been made aware that they intend to work on the weekend. So we will need you on standby. It goes on to say, as discussed, you should be prepared to do the following to be as helpful as possible. There's a bulleted list of six very specific instructions. But this one stood out to me. Under all circumstances, ensure that clear records are kept on what is requested. What does that mean to you? Ensure that clear records are kept on what is requested and provided to your AD, assistant director, and it says copying a couple of people. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I think there's a lot of sensitivities around, and there have been a lot of disputes about what is Doge entitled to or not. Right. And this seems to be saying, if they ask for something, let's document exactly what they're asking for. And let's make sure it goes up the chain so that it can get reviewed and approved. And if there's a dispute in the future about what they're asking for, they want to make sure that's documented. Or if there's a dispute about what they did access, that there's a record of that. Oh. That's what it sounds like to me. So again, they're probably reading the reporting around Doge at other agencies, gaining access to systems, the controversies connected to that, and are kind of suggesting some proactive steps in the event that there's requests to access data systems. And that afternoon, the Doge employee arrives at Peace Corps to suss out waste, fraud, and abuse. All right, they're finally here. Here we go. So the emails don't say how the arrival actually went. But I'm imagining Nancy and Karen greet her on the first floor. They escort her to the second floor to get her badge. And then she settles into a conference room with her pre-configured laptop with the identified software installed, just like they planned. And that evening, we're still on April 4th, Matt, the chief information office sends a message to the whole team. And this is sort of a debrief. Team, as you are probably aware, a Doge employee visited Peace Corps today. She and a few of her colleagues will be working here with us over the coming weeks. They will be sitting in conference room 7218 for the duration of their stay. During their stay with us, please observe the following. I'm cracking up at some of this. We're getting ready to read to you, Matt. Do not, not is in all caps, do not walk by the conference room to peek in. the location was selected for their privacy. Be mindful of your hallway conversations. Do not, not again in all caps, discuss their presence outside the agency. Do not share their names with anyone. Be courteous and respectful of their time. These folks are professionals with a big job to do and a narrow window in which to do it. We want them to be able to do their job safely and effectively. Your decorum and professionalism is expected. I mean, do not walk by the conference room to peek in. What I'd really like to hear is that read by the actor who played Tom Wamskan in Succession. Guys, you back off! You back off! This is executive level business! Okay, you know! I mean, it's so funny because every time some kind of directive is handed down, you know, then the directive ends up being published by a media outlet. But, you know. Yeah, and this is a big deal. So like, I mean, imposing secrecy on government officials, like there is some First Amendment law around this. And, you know, there is a lot the government can do. But like these things are restricting government officials ability to tell the public about what's going on in the government. Like isn't really very democratic in my mind. I mean, there may be some legitimate reasons, but not to like save embarrassment or to minimize scrutiny. Well, what would be the legitimate reason to not disclose that there is a person from the Department of Government efficiency there. Why keep that from the public? We already know that Department of Government efficiency exists We already know from Trump executive orders that they are being tasked with going into various agencies to basically check their books So why the secrecy around this? I think they're just engaging what politicians forever engage in. But this is exactly what they'd be criticizing prior administrations for doing. Like information blackouts, controlling the narrative, spin. People are tired of this stuff. It's frustrating to people who want to understand what the government's up to. And then like they're trying to keep this kind of stuff secret. Exactly. And to be clear, I'm not weighing in at all on the partisan politics around this. For me, this is just about straight up transparency. Just finding out what's going on in real time. And I think our record in messing with the Obama administration and messing with the Biden administration just as much, I think it speaks for itself. Like this isn't about partisanship. This isn't about politics. This is about you're the government and you work for us. And I don't care what party you're a member of. I don't care what policy you're trying to further. If you're not willing to do it in the open, then you don't deserve to be in government. Everyone should just imagine what would the world look like if the only thing that ever got reported in the press is what the government puts in press releases and in talking points. Nobody wants to live in that world except, you know, maybe government officials. So these kinds of things, they really, if they're followed, they have the ability to just shut down news coverage and make Jason's job more difficult. By the way, the emails I received don't name the Doge employee. But by evening on April 4th, there was already a story naming a Doge employee in The Guardian, thanks to two people at Peace Corps who anonymously spoke to a reporter there. They said her name was Bridget Young's. So much for do not discuss their presence outside of the agency. Right. We don't know much about her, but it's since been reported that she's 29 years old, according to ProPublica's extensive database of Doge members, Elon Musk's demolition crew, as ProPublica called them. It kind of reminds me of the Motorhead song, We Are the Road Crew. Yeah. What else? She previously worked as a senior manager at Ramp Charging, a company that builds electric vehicle charging stations. And that's according to an archive of her deleted LinkedIn profile. That's another thing, by the way. Many of these folks who came to work for Doge just erased their digital footprint. They deleted their social media accounts and did so in a way where, like, you can't even find much of an archive. But before that, she worked at New Energy Capital, a clean energy investment firm. So no government experience that we know of. And now she's coming into the Peace Corps to, you know, do her thing. She was only there a few hours, but would be back. And there could be more people from Doge next time. She'll be back. She'll be back. The following Monday, an email went around to some employees with a reminder. Hi, quick update. The Doge team came in to do an assessment, which is ongoing. They have done the same at several other agencies that don't make the press. The only reminder is if we do receive media requests to work with the communications team and not respond independently. Thanks. I'm sorry. You're talking about an STFU order? Yeah. Have you ever received one of those? I mean, that's like standard government fare that I've seen. Like both parties, all units of government, the like, if there's a press inquiry, then make sure that it's the people at the top who can control what's being said. So, you know, that's... Which is usually nothing. Right, which is usually nothing. Right. So what came of this? In late April, the Guardian reported Peace Corps to undergo significant cuts after Doge review. It reported that the CEO, Alison Green, sent an email to staff offering them a second fork in the road buyout. The first one being offered by Musk to all government employees earlier this year. Employees had seven business days to decide. Then in August of this year, the Peace Corps announced a shuffle in senior leadership. CEO Alison Green, among others, stepped down to, quote, pave the way for a new leadership team and guide the organizational transformations that will make Peace Corps stronger and more efficient in the long run. Karen Roberts stepped up as the acting chief of staff until the administration selected someone else, which they did in September. So we know about some buyouts and a staff shuffle, but we're still waiting to learn exactly how many cuts were made. So far, this doesn't look like it's as severe as the U.S. Institute for Peace or U.S. Aid. I tried to reach Bridget Young's and didn't get a response. But right before we published, the Peace Corps sent us this comment about Doge's visit, which they said took place in April and May. Quote, Peace Corps and Doge staff worked together respectfully and professionally to complete the audits in a timely manner. They added this about the cuts. Following the review, the agency determined that certain positions could be reduced to carry out the mission more efficiently, without any impact on volunteer safety and security, health, medical care, or quality of service. Peace Corps offered staff members a deferred resignation program option. In addition, the agency reduced overseas local hire contractors. The Peace Corps continues to support its currently serving volunteers' health, safety, and security and effective service, and continues to recruit, place, and train new volunteers. So, Jason, you said you wanted an opportunity to visualize what a visit from Doge entailed and hope to capture that through documents. Did the documents answer your questions? Oh, totally. These documents really gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the planning, in some cases, the fear, the anxiety that was circulating right before Doge's visit. And I do think that it gives us a visualization of what was happening inside Peace Corps right before Doge was coming in. What's fascinating to me in obtaining these records is the level of detail, the fact that they were planning for two months leading up to the arrival at Peace Corps, the drills that were taking place. I want the public to feel like they're a fly on the wall and are right there when all of this is taking place. So I think the documents are fascinating. I want more. I want more of these documents. And as I mentioned, Matt, this is just the kind of first interim release that we received after I negotiated with the agency. And I think it shows the impact that Doge and the way it went about doing what it's doing had on the operations of government. I think to some extent it also shows how much the federal bureaucracy doesn't want to change, that it's resistant to anyone coming in and reviewing their operations and potentially finding that they're doing things that aren't consistent with policy directives of this administration or that are inefficient or whatever it may be. And so like, I don't want to leave the impression, at least for myself, that this is like Doge is bad and the agencies are good. I think the idea of what Doge was supposed to be doing is not a bad one. And I think that agencies, to the extent they weren't cooperating, were probably in many instances being motivated by their own self-preservation, which isn't necessarily consistent with a broader public interest. True. And as I mentioned earlier, Matt, you know, this is the job that inspectors general would perform for the most part, looking into waste, fraud and abuse. For example, labor mischarging. That is what the watchdogs, the internal watchdogs historically have done. But you can't get away from the fact that there's a political agenda here. And with agencies like USAID that were identified by Project 2025, the reason was not so much about waste, fraud, and abuse, but the political and ideological associations with the programs that, for example, USAID was funding. Project 2025 was essentially trying to make the case that the U.S. was funding abortion. So, you know, Jason, I feel like I haven't heard a ton lately about what's going on at Doge. Like, what is going on these days? Well, Doge has largely faded from public view. Many of the Doge employees, like Bridget Young's, they either became permanent government employees, they are now attached to a specific agency, or they left. I mean, Elon Musk is gone. So the whole sort of idea of Doge taking an ax to these agencies, I mean, they, for six months of the year, that's what they did. But then it just completely faded. But they still exist. U.S. Doge service is still an entity. And as it relates to the FOIA, there's still a fight, you know, to get those records. But for the most part, those who were attached to Doge are now, you know, part of the government bureaucracy within other agencies. But yeah, Doge is not headline news the way it was for the first six months of the year. Well, you know, Jason, you know what they say about peace, right? Um, peace sells, but who's buying? Peace sells, but who's buying? Oh, that's perfect. You put a price on peace. I think Megadeth is about to do like a final tour, right? They are. Final tour with Iron Maiden. We're going, we're getting backstage, and we're going to interview Dave Mustaine about all this. What, do you think I'm broke? What a classic line. Better work this time. From Bloomberg and No Smiling, this is Disclosure. The show is hosted by Matt Topic and me, Jason Leopold. It's produced by Heather Schroering and Sean Cannon for No Smiling. Our editor for Bloomberg is Jeff Grokot. Our executive producers for Bloomberg are Sage Bauman and me, Jason Leopold. And our executive producers for No Smiling are Sean Cannon, Heather Schroering, and Matt Topic. The Disclosure theme song is by Nick, with additional music by Nick and Epidemic Sound. Sound design and mixing is by Sean Cannon. For more transparency news and important document dumps, you can subscribe to my weekly FOIA Files newsletter at Bloomberg.com slash FOIA Files. That's F-O-I-A Files. To get every episode early on Apple Podcasts, become a Bloomberg.com subscriber today. Check out our special intro offer right now at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer or click the link in the show notes. 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