CEO of X, Elon Musk
A federal judge has blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing millions of Americans’ personal financial data stored in Treasury Department records, according to court filings.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction, prohibiting access and ordering Musk’s team to destroy any copies of the records immediately.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general against the Trump administration, arguing that granting access to Musk—a “special government employee”—and Doge, which is not an official government agency, violated federal law.
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Musk, in response, called the ruling “absolutely insane” in a post on X, questioning how fraud and government waste could be addressed without reviewing financial records.
The judge’s order stated that allowing such access posed an “irreparable” risk of exposing sensitive personal data and increasing vulnerabilities to cyber threats. It also restricted access to Treasury Department records strictly to vetted civil servants within the Bureau of Fiscal Services.
The injunction remains in effect until a court hearing scheduled for February 14.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs, criticized the Trump administration for granting Musk and Doge “unprecedented access” to personal financial data, warning that it threatened both individual privacy and critical community funding.
Musk’s role in Trump’s second term has been marked by sweeping cost-cutting measures, including significant reductions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which oversees billions in foreign aid.
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