White House says some employees were fired by mistake

The White House released Trump's executive order that uses the Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the federal workforce.

According to the order, the director of the Office of Management and Budget will submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal government's workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.

"The Plan shall require that each agency hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart, consistent with the plan and any applicable exemptions and details provided for in the Plan," the order said. "This order does not affect the standing freeze on hiring as applied to the Internal Revenue Service."

Each agency head will be tasked to develop a data-driven plan, in consultation with its DOGE team lead, "to ensure new career appointment hires are in highest-need areas."

According to the order, the agency will not fill any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE team lead assesses should not be filled unless the agency head determines the positions should be filled.

"Agency Heads will undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law, and to separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject to the RIFs," the order added.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

The Department of Education has temporarily agreed to block representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive student loan records, according to a filing late on Tuesday.

The University of California Student Association reached an agreement that prohibits any federal employee or contractor associated with DOGE from accessing records from Department of Education systems, including the National Student Loan Data System.

The agreement, which will stay in place as the lawsuit moves through the court, also bars any federal employees or volunteers associated with DOGE from sharing any information they might have already received from the Department of Education systems.

The agreement followed a short conference Tuesday morning in which a federal judge signaled skepticism about the University of California Student Association's grounds for bringing the lawsuit.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

When pressed by ABC News' Rachel Scott in the Oval Office Tuesday about potential conflicts of interest, Elon Musk claimed that he and DOGE have been "fully public" with "all of our actions," but much of DOGE's activity across numerous federal agencies has been learned through reporting and not by the group's public disclosures.

The updates DOGE provides on X are often vague and often don't contain specifics or documentation.

Musk has repeatedly promised DOGE would use "maximum transparency" in its actions, even saying so prior to the election.

He said it would do weekly "DOGE casts" on X and update its Doge.gov website with its activity, but so far, Musk has held one DOGE cast and the group's website remains empty beyond a logo.

-ABC News' Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders

A federal appeals court denied the Trump administration's request to lift a lower court’s order that blocked the president from unilaterally freezing billions in funding.

In a 2-page order, a panel of three judges on the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request for an administrative stay of the lower court’s temporary restraining order, deferring to the district court to issue clarification about its earlier order.

Each of the three judges who made the decision were nominated to the bench by Democratic presidents.

In making their decision, the judges noted that lawyers for the Department of Justice "do not cite any authority in support of their administrative stay" or articulate the harm they suffered from the lower court’s order.

"This Circuit has not addressed whether or when an administrative stay of the sort being requested here may be issued, and there is well-recognized uncertainty as to what standards guide the decision to issue one or not," the judges added.

The court will consider issuing a stay pending appeal later this week, the order said.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous