The Support Team

Apart from his identification in a few Politico articles naming him as DOGE’s lawyer at the Department of Transportation, Daniel Abrahamson has kept a relatively low profile. He was formerly a senior counsel at Tesla since 2022.

Identified as one of DOGE’s growing army of lawyers, Justin Aimonetti has most recently been involved in DOGE’s shutdown efforts against small independent agencies like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, acting as a point of contact between DOGE teams from the GSA and the White House through his Executive Office of the President (EOP) email address.

Riccardo Biasini is an executive and software engineer who has worked at both Tesla and the Boring Company, both of which are Musk-owned businesses. Since joining the DOGE staff at OPM on January 20th, he has largely been focused on personnel-related initiatives like modernizing an “AutoRIF” system for automating layoffs at agencies. As a software developer, he likely has been connected to other initiatives like the Fork in the Road or the Five Things emails, but he has kept a lower profile than other engineers.

A SpaceX veteran who has spent 20 years at the company, Brian Bjelde also helped Elon Musk to drastically cut staff after his takeover of Twitter. It seems like Brian ia happy being a hatchet man, and he likely has been involved in the efforts to cut government staff, including a plan to eliminate 70% of the positions at OPM.

Ashley Boizelle most recently served as lawyer within Amazon, but she worked as a counsel within the FCC during the first Trump administration, making her one of the few DOGE staffers with previous government experience. She has been linked to both DOGE offices within the EOP as well as GSA. Most of her activities have been under the radar, but we was consulted by CFPB leadership as they planned for massive layoffs at the agency.

James Burnham served in the previous Trump administration at both the White House and the Department of Justice. The New York Times mentioned his involvement with DOGE in an article from mid-January, and he has been listed in several subsequent media round-ups of DOGE’s lawyers. He departed from his position a day after Elon Musk left his role.

According to ProPublica, she has been hired at GSA to work on a website promoting use of AI within the government

As one of the legal attack dogs within DOGE, Clayton Cromer was involved with the efforts to shut down USAID, including chasing down an administrator to suspend him for not agreeing to suspend other staff who were accused of subverting the administration’s agenda just by doing their jobs. More recently, he has appeared at the DOJ, where he has been repoortedly badgering US Congressman (and former whistleblower) Vindman about a business that supplied assistance to Ukraine in their war.

Like three other new DOGE staffers who started early t OPM, Stephen Duarte was previously a HR specialist at SpaceX. He reportedly has worked closely with Brian Bjelde.

According to ProPublica, he has been hired at GSA to work on a website promoting use of AI within the government

Nicholas Gallagher is a lawyer working within GSA. Prior to that, he worked at a law firm Clement & Murphy, “which specializes in arguing conservative causes before the U.S. Supreme Court” according to ProPublica.

Part of DOGE’s army of lawyers, there isn’t much public information about his activities, although his name did appear in the metadata for some grant cancellation documents that were sent out by NIH. This doesn’t mean necessarily that he was detailed to that agency; but it does indicate some role in crafting the justifications given to agencies about these moves.

Before DOGE, Christina Hanna worked at both SpaceX and for Elon Musk personally as an HR manager. Her activities at OPM since her start have not been publicly disclosed.

A relatively new addition to the DOGE staff based in GSA, Raj is also working for his job as the vice president of IT for AI infrastructure and vehicle support operations at Tesla. These dual-employment scenarios would be unthinkable in other presidential admininstrations; for DOGE, they’re routine. Jegannathan is “working closely with senior political leadership at the GSA on federal acquisition efforts,” according to ProPublica

One of the DOGE team of lawyers, there aren’t many public details about Keenan Kmiec’s specific contributions, apart from testimony from Noah Peters that he discussed the idea of firing probationary employees before the administration began. Like a small number of the DOGE crew, he comes from a cryptocurrency company and would possibly be involved with any work or policy by DOGE related to that sector.

Coming to DOGE from McKinsey, she has also been the person to testify in a deposition as a DOGE representative in a court case.

The DOGE member who did HR at SpaceX. Nope, not that one. Not that one either. She actually is one of four HR specialists who came from SpaceX to OPM, presumably to work on ways to reduce the federal workforces. All of which leaves me wondering how HR is for employees at SpaceX.

He is the founder/CEO of cloud company Antimetal. According to ProPublica, he has been linked to the “Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency,” but unclear if these are detailing arrangements or meetings. He also has apparently been involved in meetings with tech firms who are vendors to the federal government.

Austin Raynor is another one of the conservative lawyers who have been part of DOGE’s operations at OPM. He previously has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and has served as a senior lawyer at the Pacific Foundation, a libertarian organization. As a lawyer in DOGE’s team at OPM, he probably has worked closely with Noah Peters and Keenan Kmiec.