AMNA NAWAZ: This evening, a federal district judge ruled against a lawsuit brought by 14 attorneys general alleging that Trump violated the Constitution by granting Elon Musk what they called unchecked power.

In the ruling, Judge Tanya Chutkan said -- quote -- "The court finds that plaintiffs have not carried their burden of showing that they will suffer imminent irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order."

For more on this, I'm joined now by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, one of the plaintiffs of the suit.

Attorney General, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for being with us.

KRIS MAYES (D), Arizona Attorney General: Thanks, Amna.

Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's just begin with your reaction to the ruling this evening.

KRIS MAYES: Well, listen, basically the ruling that the judge made in this case essentially had a lot of great language for us, and this is just the first step in what will be a long process.

She did, as you said, as you noted, deny the TRO, the temporary restraining order, but the lawsuit moves forward.

And we now have the opportunity to do what she has asked us to do, which is to provide additional evidence that Elon Musk is and Donald Trump are violating the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, that he is essentially running amuck in the federal government, and he is doing great harm to Americans.

And I would just read from her order, which says that plaintiffs, that means the states, legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected official and an entity that was not created by Congress.

And that is what -- that's actually exactly what we are stating, that the Appointments Clause has been violated, it is being violated and that this is another example of a violation of the separation of powers.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you are arguing in your lawsuit, we should say, as you mentioned, the violation of the Appointments Clause, saying that Musk is wielding power he doesn't have, as someone who wasn't Senate-confirmed, nominated officially by the president.

And the judge, as you note, did say in the ruling you're legitimately calling that into question.

So what does that mean for your next steps?

KRIS MAYES: Well, basically what it means is, we now have a couple of weeks to do a lot of digging.

And we're going to be asking for a lot of documents of the government, of the Trump administration.

We're going to be interviewing a lot of witnesses.

We're inviting people who have been harmed by the actions of Elon Musk to contact my office and the office of the other A.G.s.

And then we're going to have an opportunity down the road very soon to present that evidence to this very same judge.

And, frankly, given the language that she used in this order, we feel pretty good about this case.

We have always felt good about this case.

So for the attorneys general, Democratic A.G.s, this is about upholding our Constitution protecting Americans against these harms, and making sure that we uphold the rule of law.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you, of course, about what the White House has to say, which is that Donald Trump is a duly elected president,who -- it's within his purview to appoint people to these positions to carry out his agenda.

We should also note in their latest filing that the White House stipulated Elon Musk isn't technically an employee of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency.

And, actually, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was asked to clarify what his role and authority is on FOX earlier today.

Here's what she had to say.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, White House Press Secretary: Elon Musk has been tasked with overseeing DOGE on behalf of the president.

And DOGE employees, DOGE folks have been onboarding at respective agencies across our federal bureaucracy as political appointees, just like any other political appointee gets on board with the new administration with the changing of hands.

And those individuals are helping the secretaries at all of our agencies that have been nominated and confirmed by President Trump and the United States Senate to cut waste, fraud and abuse at these respective agencies.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Attorney General Mayes, you heard there they're saying that Elon Musk isn't the one firing people, that he's working with presidentially nominated Senate-confirmed secretaries of the agency, who do the firing.

Does that undermine your argument?

KRIS MAYES: No, because we have all of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's previous statements, which completely contradict what the White House press secretary just said today.

I mean, Elon Musk has bragged about firing thousands of federal workers.

Elon Musk has bragged about slashing and eliminating entire agencies like USAID, as has Donald Trump.

So the record is clear.

And I think it's important also, Amna, to note, that the judge in our case had to remind the government's lawyers not to lie to her court.

That is in a footnote of this decision.

So I think it's important for the White House to tell the truth.

Obviously, Elon Musk is acting in a way that violates the Appointments Clause.

He is acting with great and significant authority.

And all of the evidence demonstrates that.

And I would add to that, if the president wants to take these actions, he can do that by going to Congress and working with Congress in the way that our Constitution sets out.

But the problem is Americans don't want him to do what he's doing.

Americans don't want the elimination of the Department of Education.

Americans don't want employees of the -- of our nuclear work force eliminated.

Americans don't want... (CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Attorney General, if I may, the majority of Americans who voted did vote for Donald Trump and this agenda.

So they might disagree with you on that.

KRIS MAYES: Well, I don't really believe that the majority of Americans thought that they were going to get this kind of chaos and this kind of unconstitutional behavior.

Americans didn't vote for a dictator and they did not vote for a coup.

And that is exactly what is going on right now, when you have a president who is repeatedly violating federal court orders and is repeatedly violating the separation of powers.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joining us tonight.

Attorney General Mayes, thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

KRIS MAYES: Thanks, Amna.