Jacob Altik and Nikhil Rajpal start working at OPM

DOGE member and lawyer Jacob Altik joins the legal defense team for the administration in Jane Does 1-2 v. Office of Personnel Management (D.D.C.) without revealing he is an DOGE staffer who is working for OPM.

In a FOIA request, Democracy Forward names DOGE staff known to be at OPM at that time.

Jacob Altik demands waivers to exempt DOGE staff from background checks. He also threatens to fire the USADF board if DOGE’s demands are not met.

Ethan Shaotran, Jacob Altik, and Nate Cavanaugh arrive at the agency and demand that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be signed for their detail assignment.

Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh return to the IAF with Jacob Altik, who presented himself as representing the EOP. Altik confirms that DOGE plans to reduce IAF to what he considers the statutory minimum (a board and president, a location in DC, some grants) and DOGE will be conducting a Reduction in Force of all employees and terminating all grants. The demand approval from the board and threaten the board will be fired otherwise.

Nate Cavanaugh and Jacob Altik then demanded immediate access to USADF systems including financial records and payment and human resources systems. They were told they had to go through standard clearance process.

Once the MOU is signed, DOGE staff reveal their real purpose is to conduct a massive reduction in agency staff and scope and demand they must file a RIF plan by February 24th.

USIP leadership meets with DOGE staffers James Burnham, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh to explain the history and legal status of the small independent executive branch agency and why it should not need to respond to DOGE’s demands

The DOGE delegation counters to USIP leadership with their belief that minimum statutory size of agency is “a Board of Directors and a president, reports to Congress and the Executive branch, and expenses incident to the Board of Directors” and says they will regroup and return.

Jacob Altik and Ethan Shaotran are rebuffed by agency leadership when attempting to enter the agency headquarters.

DOGE staff Jacob Altik and Ethan Shaotran return to the agency joined by Nate Cavanaugh and US marshals to force their way into the agency.

After receiving inquiries from the DOGE staff, the head of USIP security emailed them information about the private security firm that manages access to the HQ building.

Tarak Makecha, Joshua Fox, and Jacob Altik communicate with FCC staff about detailing arrangements from the OPM to the FCC (presumably for Tarak and Jacob)

DOGE members Kenneth Jackson, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh show up at USIP building with 2 other people who claim to be FBI agents. They are refused entry. The DOGE delegation attempts to present a document firing the USIP president.

DOGE members Kenneth Jackson, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh remove staff and president of the USIP with the help of Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the FBI and D.C. police. Kenneth Jackson is named Acting President.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs accuses the Department of Justice of deliberately misrepresenting Jacob Altik’s participation in the defense “perhaps to preserve the illusion that OPM’s counsel were ignorant of what OPM was doing with the Government-Wide Email System, or perhaps to obscure the role of DOGE and the White House in this case.”

Politico publishes a list of 10 lawyers that it says are linked to DOGE.

Tarak Makecha, Jordan Wick and Jacob Altik are listed in the public directory of FCC staff and listed as associated with the Office of the Chairman at the FCC.

Jacob Altik and Ashley Boizelle meet in the FCC headquarters with the Chief of Staff Greg Watson to discuss the FCC’s progress on removing regulations.

In a meeting between HUD and DOGE, Jacob Altik says they are planning to use Christopher Sweet’s AI model analyzing regulations at HUD to review the entire Code of Federal regulations for regulations to review. (fuzz: Date is unspecified, just sometime earlier in April)

In a status report for AFGE, AFL-CIO v. OPM, the government reports that multiple DOGE staff at OPM have left the government by this date. Of course, their actual departure dates might be earlier, but it’s a direct acknowledgment of multiple staff departures in the preceding months.

DOGE gives a presentation of a “DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool” that will use AI to target roughly 50% of federal regulations for elimination, on the argument that they aren’t meeting statutory requirements. The goal is to slash these regulations by January 20, 2026. In their presentation, DOGE claims the tool has already made determinations on 1083 decisions at HUD (using Christopher Sweet’s work) and has also been used for 100% of deregulatory actions at the CFPB. It also states that DOGE lawyers James Burnham, Austin Raynor, Jacob Altik and Ashley Boizelle have vetted and endorsed the tool.