US judge blocks Musk's cost-cutting team from Treasury data
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A federal judge has blocked Elon Musk's DOGE from accessing personal financial data in Treasury records.
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Elon Musk arrives before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, on January 20, 2025. (Pool photo via AP)
A US judge issued an emergency order on Saturday blocking Elon Musk's team from accessing the personal and financial data of millions of Americans stored at the Treasury Department.
US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's ruling blocks access to Treasury data for "all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department."
The injunction, effective until a February 14 hearing, also mandates that individuals who accessed Treasury records since Trump's inauguration must "immediately destroy any and all copies" of the material.
Musk, leading Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), faces accusations from 19 state attorneys general of illegally accessing sensitive data. Despite not being a federal employee, Musk was recently registered as a "special government employee."
DOGE does not have full department status and requires Congressional approval. Since the administration's inception, Musk and his team have enacted sweeping reforms, including halting foreign aid, cutting budgets, and pushing for significant layoffs.
'Unfettered access'
On Saturday, Judge Engelmayer's order stated that the states suing would "face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief," citing the risk of disclosing sensitive information and the increased vulnerability of the systems to hacking.
Musk faced backlash after reports surfaced that he and his team were accessing sensitive Treasury data.
An internal Treasury assessment called DOGE’s access "the single biggest insider threat the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) has ever faced."
The lawsuit from states like New York and California accused the Trump administration of granting "virtually unfettered access" to BFS systems to a DOGE associate, posing cybersecurity risks.
The lawsuit also highlighted concerns that data from various federal agencies was being utilized in an open-source AI system managed by a private third party.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin criticized the situation, accusing Trump of permitting an unelected billionaire to access systems containing sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers and banking information.
