US Must Face Claims of Musk Power Overreach as Trump Adviser

Elon Musk, left, and President Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 11, 2025.Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg

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By Zoe Tillman

March 23, 2026 at 10:51 PM UTC

Updated on

March 24, 2026 at 8:27 PM UTC

A federal judge in Washington will allow a lawsuit to go forward that accuses billionaire Elon Musk of unconstitutionally exercising executive power during his time in the Trump administration last year as a presidential adviser.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday denied the government’s request to fully dismiss a case filed by nonprofit organizations that claimed their members were harmed by the federal funding cuts and mass firings of government workers that they contend Musk played an unlawfully outsized role in directing.