A coalition of 14 state attorneys general, representing major states like California and New York, announced plans Thursday to initiate legal actions against Elon Musk and certain members of his team. These authorities allege that Musk and associates are illegally tapping into highly sensitive government payment systems, jeopardizing vast amounts of personal and financial data of millions of Americans.
Officials assert that this unauthorized access orchestrated by Musk’s informal group, named the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is part of their broader effort to implement significant cuts in federal spending as instructed by President Donald Trump. Recently, members of DOGE have reportedly attempted to or successfully accessed key databases at various federal institutions, including the Departments of Treasury, Education, Labor, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The primary concern for the attorneys general centers on events at the Treasury, where they claim Musk’s team is unlawfully perusing payment systems containing individual and state bank account details among other private information. “As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is not used to being told ‘no,’ but in our country, no one is above the law,” the joint statement from the attorneys general emphasized.
This unfolding controversy highlights a critical absence of broad federal privacy law, although several states have existing statutes that define the unauthorized data access as illegal. Some legal experts and commentators have labeled DOGE’s actions as a significant data privacy breach.
The exact timing and defendants for the proposed lawsuit remain unspecified at this point, but the aim is clearly to halt any further intrusion into Treasury’s systems by Musk and his affiliates.
Additional attorneys general involved in this action hail from states such as Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It should be noted that both Arizona and Nevada were states that Trump won in the 2024 election.
Details remain scarce as spokespeople for several of the attorneys general did not immediately return requests for additional comment.
This legal announcement followed shortly after the Treasury’s decision to temporarily prevent more DOGE members from accessing its systems. This decision came in the wake of a lawsuit brought forward by numerous labor groups, which also raised alarms about the breadth of sensitive information at risk, including Social Security, bank account, and credit card numbers, personal details like birth dates and contact information, as well as financial data including income, assets, and liabilities.
The unfolding scenario promises complex legal battles as state-level leaders attempt to check the federal government’s internal oversight and data management under the Trump administration. This confrontation underscores deep tensions within the state-federal dynamics and raises poignant questions about privacy, lawfulness, and the reaches of governmental authority in the digital age.
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