DOGE Affiliate Asked for College Credits for Participating in Takeover

According to new documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, an undergraduate working with DOGE requested that his work for HUD count towards his University of Chicago degree. Christopher Sweet, an affiliate of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, requested college credit for his time in government, according to new documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal organization. Sweet was stationed at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and in emails between Sweet and Scott Langmack, another DOGE affiliate at HUD, it appears that Sweet was looking to frame his work at HUD as an independent study worth three college credits. Sweet joined HUD in the spring of 2025 as an undergraduate college student at the University of Chicago to work on building an AI tool that would crawl through the agency's rules and regulations and flag them for rescission, or the cancellation of contracts. The tool, called SweetRex, was intended to be rolled out across the federal government.