When the Trump administration’s DOGE attempted last week to assign a team to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the move followed a months-long offensive by DOGE staffers who have strong-armed their way into federal agencies, accessed sensitive data, and helped fire thousands of workers.

But doing that at GAO would violate the basic structure of the federal government, says David Walker, a former head of the agency.

“The DOGE team needs to read the Constitution again,” Walker told NPR. “There are three separate and equal branches of government.”

The GAO is an influential watchdog agency that operates under the legislative branch — Congress, not the White House. GAO leaders refused DOGE’s request to embed staffers at the agency.