A federal judge has ordered Elon Musk’s employees at the Department of Government Efficiency to stop accessing sensitive personal information inside the Treasury Department after nearly 20 states pleaded with the courts to shut down the unprecedented access seized by DOGE.
Southern District of New York Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled early Saturday morning that a restraining order was necessary given “the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
The temporary restraining order blocks Musk’s fresh-faced lackeys from accessing the payment systems responsible for disbursing federal paychecks, Social Security and Medicare benefits, and tax refunds.
The order comes in response to a suit announced on Thursday. In a statement, attorneys general representing the states argued Musk’s team had “unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable” levels of access to sensitive data.
“The President does not have the power to give away our private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress,” the statement read.
The order temporarily blocks the Trump administration from “granting [access] to political appointees, special government employees, and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department.” Engelmayer further stipulated that bureaucrats with continued access must still pass proper background checks and hold security clearances.
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