What happened to the federal workers Michael Lewis profiles as DOGE blockers?

“Executive orders are normal. And as long as they're lawful, our job is to administer them,” Walters told CBS News. She said she was 23 days short of qualifying for early retirement when she left, after almost 20 years at the IRS.

Walters also told CBS News, “After I left, the IRS handed over the data.” Her account describes her own role and understanding of the dispute; it is not, by itself, a legal finding about her actions or the administration’s intent.

The D.C. Circuit’s Sept. 8 ruling gives the dispute a separate, judicial record. The court affirmed a preliminary injunction restricting the IRS procedure used to process ICE requests, finding that the procedure did not meet statutory requirements and that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits.

The ruling is preliminary relief, not a final judgment resolving all claims. The opinion says the IRS disclosed 47,289 taxpayer records to ICE under the procedure at issue; more than 90% were produced through matching taxpayer identification numbers.

Tax-return information is subject to strict legal conditions for sharing with other federal agencies, the appeals court said. The case therefore concerns both the handling of sensitive records and the safeguards agencies must follow—not a court finding that Walters personally stopped an unlawful disclosure.

Can DOGE’s savings claims be verified?

The question of accountability extends beyond the IRS. DOGE promoted savings from canceled contracts, grants and leases, but a Government Accountability Office review found that the information available did not allow it to verify many estimates or determine from those data alone whether they were too high or too low.

As of July 7, 2026, DOGE’s Wall of Receipts listed $110.34 billion in claimed savings from contracts, grants and leases. GAO also described a broader DOGE-reported total of $215 billion that included categories beyond those three; neither figure is an independently verified savings total.

The limits were especially substantial in the grant figures. For 13,553 grants, GAO could not verify the method used to calculate $47.32 billion in claimed savings—96.2% of DOGE’s reported grant savings. The watchdog cautioned that its review could not establish whether those estimates were understated or overstated.

That distinction matters because federal grants support programs and institutions in areas including health care, education, infrastructure and income security, and go to recipients such as state and local governments, schools and nonprofits. GAO’s review does not establish the service effects of particular cancellations, but the public cannot assess claimed savings fully without dependable information about how the figures were derived.

DOGE’s savings claims also need to be separated from Elon Musk’s promise. CBS News reported that Musk promised at least $2 trillion in savings from government cuts; that was a target he stated, not a verified amount achieved.

What does the administration say comes next?

The administration has defended its work as a continuing efficiency effort. CBS News quoted Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor saying, “DOGE was a catalyst for these reforms that are now being institutionalized through the Vice President's leadership on fraud, waste and abuse and OPM's and OMB's cross-government focus on organizational efficiency.” The administration has also maintained that it acted lawfully in the IRS-ICE data dispute.

DOGE was established on Jan. 20, 2025, and its temporary organization ended on July 4, 2026, according to GAO. That did not end the broader DOGE entity, and the administration says efficiency work continues through other government efforts.

Lewis’s book frames the workers involved as more than obstacles to a cost-cutting project. He told CBS News that the word blocker, used by Musk for workers he viewed as obstructing his goals, was an insult. Walters offered a different test: “I mean, if you want to say I was blocking people from violating the law, then I guess that's a fair term,” she told CBS News.

The reporting so far does not establish how many federal workers were laid off or otherwise affected by DOGE, or what staffing changes meant for specific services. It also does not identify the taxpayers whose records were disclosed or establish what additional safeguards the IRS and ICE will use after the court ruling. Those questions remain open as Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State is scheduled to reach readers Tuesday.