WASHINGTON — A U.S. District Judge has issued a temporary injunction against Elon Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), preventing them from accessing crucial financial records and systems within the Treasury Department. The order, delivered by Judge Paul Engelmayer, arrives amid escalating concerns over privacy and security risks associated with such access.
The legal challenge was initiated following complaints from 19 state attorneys along with various unions, focusing on DOGE’s clearance to engage with the Treasury’s sensitive payment systems. Engelmayer’s ruling, effective at least until a court hearing on February 14, aims to avert any “irreparable harm” that might arise from mishandling or unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
The sweeping injunction also precludes all political appointees, special government employees, and personnel from other agencies outside the Treasury from accessing payment systems, records, or any databases containing personal or confidential financial information processed by the Treasury Department. The judge has directed the Trump administration to obliterate any copies of downloaded material from these systems immediately.
This court action reflects tremendous anxiety over data security. Judge Engelmayer emphasized the elevated risk of system vulnerabilities and potential privacy breaches under the new policy that led to such extraordinary restrictions.
Matters escalated when the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s threat intelligence team circulated an internal email alert, explicitly warning about the activities of the DOGE group. The team stressed urgent concerns regarding unauthorized modifications and access blockages perpetrated by DOGE members, heightening internal alert systems and proposing a stringent review of any DOGE-affiliated system interactions.
An unsettling report from other federal agencies was disclosed in the internal email, portraying instances of unauthorized alterations made by DOGE operatives that locked out civil servants from critical operational platforms. As a result, there are recommendations for implementing insider threat monitoring measures against DOGE members if their access isn’t entirely revoked.
Further intensifying these concerns, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which manages trillions of dollars worth of payments annually, recognizes that ongoing access, even minimal ‘read-only’ permissions for DOGE members, constitutes an unprecedented internal security threat.
With proceedings poised for mid-February, the unfolding situation raises profound questions regarding government handling of sensitive financial operations and the implications of administrative changes on national security.
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