A federal judge early yesterday blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing US Department of the Treasury records that contain sensitive personal data such as US Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.
US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued US President Donald Trump. The case, filed in federal court in New York, said that the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access the treasury department’s central payment system in contravention of federal law.
The payment system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year, while containing an expansive network of Americans’ personal and financial data.
Photo: AFP
Engelmayer, who was appointed by former US president Barack Obama, also said anyone prohibited from having access to the sensitive information since Jan. 20 must immediately destroy all copies of material downloaded from the department’s systems. He set a hearing for Friday next week.
DOGE was created to discover and eliminate what the Trump administration has deemed wasteful government spending. Its access to treasury records, as well as its inspection of government agencies, has ignited widespread concern among critics over the increasing power of Musk, while supporters have cheered at the idea of reining in bloated government finances.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office filed the lawsuit, said DOGE’s access to the treasury’s data raised security problems and the possibility for an illegal freeze in federal funds.
On Friday night, US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ordered a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of US Agency for International Development jobs and agreed to block an order that would have given the thousands of overseas agency workers the White House wanted to place on abrupt administrative leave just 30 days to move families and households back to the US on government expense.
Both moves would have exposed the US workers and their spouses and children to unwarranted risk and expense, the judge said.
Also on Friday, Trump revoked former US president Joe Biden’s security clearance in a blizzard of new orders that including freezing aid to South Africa, where his top donor Musk was born, and naming himself head of one of Washington’s premier cultural venues, the Kennedy Center.
“JOE, YOU’RE FIRED,” Trump wrote in all caps wrote on his Truth Social network.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP
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