Federal judge partially blocks DOGE’s access to Treasury financial systems

A federal judge Thursday limited access to a Treasury Department payments system that various Department of Government Efficiency surrogates had burrowed into at the behest of Elon Musk.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of labor unions against the Treasury Department and Secretary Scott Bessent, wrote in her ruling that the defendants cannot “provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.”

Tom Krause and Marko Elez, two DOGE-connected “special government employees” of the Treasury Department, were granted “read-only” access to Bureau of Fiscal Service systems “as needed for the performance” of their respective duties, the judge ruled.

Additional access carveouts were granted to any Treasury employee — not including special government employees — that have “a need for the record or system of records in the performance of their duties,” as well as any person entitled to access the records under a federal records statute and the Internal Revenue Code.

The lawsuit, filed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union, alleged that Bessent allowed Musk and his DOGE surrogates to access the personal information of millions of individuals who have transacted with the federal government.

According to the suit, that personal information includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, birth places, home addresses and telephone numbers, email addresses, and bank account information.

The union groups alleged that the newly confirmed Bessent provided DOGE workers with “full access” to the Bureau of Fiscal Service’s “data and the computer systems that house them,” after he put a Treasury employee who had previously blocked DOGE efforts on leave.

The plaintiffs, represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the State Democracy Defenders Fund, asked the court to put “an immediate stop” to the “systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records,” citing the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code’s protections for taxpayer information.

Whether DOGE workers had read-only access to Treasury’s systems or were able to modify files and code had been in dispute.

Politico reported Monday that Bessent had told Republican lawmakers that he had signed off on read-only system access to a team led by a Treasury liaison to DOGE.

However, Wired later reported that Elez, a 25-year-old engineer with ties to Musk, “has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government.”

The order from Judge Kollar-Kotelly will remain active until the court rules on a forthcoming preliminary injunction motion from the plaintiffs.

Written by Matt Bracken - managing editor of FedScoop and CyberScoop, overseeing coverage of federal government technology policy and cybersecurity.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys said that two of Musk’s DOGE allies, Thomas Krause and Marko Elez, had been made special employees of the Treasury Department and given access to the massive payment system.

But Humphreys said that to the Justice Department’s knowledge, Krause and Elez had not shared any data they reviewed with anyone outside of the Treasury, including Musk and other White House officials. He said Musk’s role at DOGE was to set “high-level” policy goals to root out waste in government while dispatching allies to agencies to carry out those efforts.

Kollar-Kotelly indicated she wants the Trump administration to maintain the status quo while she considers the lawsuit’s broader request: a court order blocking the DOGE efforts altogether until there are guarantees that they conform with privacy protections, the tax code and other records-related laws and rules.

The action in Kollar-Kotelly’s court followed movement in another Musk-related lawsuit brought by federal employees concerned that DOGE’s effort to compile a government-wide email system could compromise personal data of millions of federal employees.

That lawsuit, brought by two anonymous employees of the Office of Personnel Management, drew a response from the agency Wednesday: a “privacy impact analysis” by agency CIO Greg Hogan that found the risk to employee data would be minimal. A hearing in the lawsuit is set for Thursday morning.

The analysis responds to concerns raised by the anonymous employees that Musk and his top allies have been using private email servers to collect sensitive information about federal workers in violation of privacy laws. The employees had asked the court for an emergency order requiring OPM to conduct the privacy analysis. They are also seeking other measures to protect employee data.

Musk’s allies set up the government-wide email system to help facilitate an effort to push many federal employees to accept a “deferred resignation” — an offer to wind down their jobs while continuing to receive pay for several months — as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to thin the ranks of the federal workforce. The program itself has drawn legal challenges as well.

Justice Department attorneys, representing OPM, say the new privacy analysis renders the lawsuit moot. And they say blocking the government from using its government-wide email system would significantly damage government operations.

From January 5, 2025

Judge weighs short-term block on Musk allies’ ability to share Treasury records outside the department

A lawsuit alleges that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is compromising Treasury’s payment system.

Most interesting, informative and horrifying video of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse explaining what billionaires, Trump, Musk and DOGE are doing to us and what Trump's Project 2025 manager, Russ Vought is going to do to us once Vought is sworn in as Trump's new White House budget Director. When you find out about the racist insanity of Vought you may beging to realize this is a coup to cut Social Security, federal benefits and federal workers.

The more knowledgable a person is, the worse this video will impact you.

MSNBC - Brian Barrett, editor of WIRED tech mag explains how easy it would be for Musk and his teenage mutant ninja backpack crew to cause instant irreversible catastrophe trying to edit millions of lines of very old and precarious code that maintains operation of the U.S. Treasury payments system

MSNBC: Chris Hayes -

Democrats Go Wild On Musk & his teenage mutant ninja backpack crew

ELON ILLEGALLY RANSACKS FEDERAL AGENCIES | The Kyle Kulinski Show

MSNBC: Chris Hayes - Nationwide Anti-Trump/Musk Protests

BREAKING: Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries Introduce 'Stop The Steal Act' To Counter Elon Musk, DOGE