A federal judge put a temporary restriction on Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing a crucial Treasury Department payment system due to the risk of causing irreversible harm. The order was issued by US District Judge Paul Engelmayer early on a Saturday.
This injunction stops access to a sensitive payment system responsible for distributing tax returns, Social Security benefits, disability payments, and federal employees’ salaries. The judge also mandated the deletion of any information downloaded from the system since January 20. This action was taken to prevent the exposure of confidential data and to reduce the system’s vulnerability to potential hacking threats.
The judge’s decision was preceded by another court ruling that halted the administration’s efforts to dissolve the US Agency for International Development. These legal interventions serve as a response to concerns over the security and stability of critical government systems.
And a federal judge paused a Thursday deadline for the administration’s so-called buyout offer to federal employees while more proceedings on the program’s legality played out. That followed earlier federal court rulings halting a sweeping federal spending freeze.
The suit from the attorneys general alleges the team led by Musk and staffed by young associates categorised as “special government employees” have been unlawfully granted access to the Treasury system that previously was restricted to specific government employees.
The effort by what the Trump administration calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is intended to cut government costs drastically but has sought access to critical computer systems, including the Treasury payment system, at the objection of others in the agencies, as CNN previously reported.
DOGE’s actions have ignited a tense political debate and emergency court proceedings over its access to the system and the administration’s potential interest in using it to turn off payments as it chooses.
“The conduct of Doge members presents a unique security risk to the States and State residents whose data is held,” the lawsuit said.
The payment system offers services for more than 250 federal agencies and is the conduit for an extraordinary swath of critical individual payments. It is central to the operations of the US government and the lives of millions of Americans.
The administration’s efforts have drawn the wrath of Democratic senators as well as unions and protestors concerned about Musk’s incursion into the private data of US citizens.
Musk and his DOGE team have sought to disrupt or gain access to a number of government nerve centers, including those responsible for the federal workforce, real estate portfolio, computer systems and records management.
The Trump administration’s first moves to upend the federal government were felt most acutely at USAID, after the president placed a freeze on most foreign aid.
In the separate court decision late on Friday involving USAID, another federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its plans to put at least 2200 employees at the agency on administrative leave and required the temporary reinstatement of 500 other workers who had been suspended.
