Cnn
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A federal judge, citing a risk of “irreparable damage”, temporarily limited the Elon Musk government’s efficiency team to access a critical payment system of the Treasury Department.
The judge’s order, issued early on Saturday, temporarily interrupts access to a payment system This distributes the income declarations of the Americans, social security benefits, disability payments and wages of federal employees.
The American district judge Paul Engelmayer has ordered the destruction of any information downloaded from the payment system by anyone who has access to it since January 20, citing “the risk that the new policy presents the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the Increased risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before hacking. »»
An audience on the issue was set for February 14.
The White House called on Saturday’s order “exceeding”.
“The efficiency of the grandiose government speaks volumes about those who prefer to delay the essential change with legal maneuver than to work with the Trump administration to rid the government of waste, fraud and abuse,” said the carrier Word of the White House, Harrison Fields, in CNN in a press release.
Engelmayer’s decision was in response to an action submitted by the Prosecutor General of New York Letitia James and 18 other state prosecutors against the Trump administration.
Trump and Musk have turned upside down the federal workforce In their quest to reduce the government, trigger chaos, fear, anger – and several proceedings that have caused legal action.
Musk also offered a defense of access to a Social media message On Saturday, saying that Doge and the Treasury Department “jointly agreed” to the requirements involving government payments, including that “all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary to adopt financial audits”.
“The super obvious and necessary changes are implemented by existing employees of the long -standing career government, no one from @doge. It is ridiculous that these changes did not already exist! Musk added.
Saturday’s order came in the heels of another court decision temporarily blocking the administration’s attempts to dismantle the American agency for international development.
And a federal judge Break a deadline of Thursday For the so-called administration buy-back offer from federal employees, while more procedures on the legality of the program took place. This followed the previous decisions of the Federal Court halting A freezing free federal spending.
The trial of attorneys general alleys that the team led by Musk and with young partners classified as “special government employees” has illegally had access to the cash system which was previously limited to specific government employees.
The effort of what the Trump administration calls for the Ministry of Government, or DOGE, aims to considerably reduce government costs, but has requested access to critical IT systems, including the payment system of the treasure, to the objection of others in agencies, as CNN previously reported.
Doge’s actions have sparked a tense political debate and emergency legal proceedings on its access to the system and the potential interest of the administration to use it to deactivate payments to choose from.
“The conduct of DOGE members presents a single risk of security for state states and residents whose data is held,” said the trial.
The payment system offers services to more than 250 federal agencies and is the duct of an extraordinary strip of individual critical payments. It is at the heart of the operations of the American government and the life of millions of Americans.
The efforts of the administration have attracted the anger of the Democratic senators as well as unions and demonstrators concerned by the Musk foray into the private data of American citizens.
Musk and his Doge team have sought to disrupt or access a certain number of government nerve centers, including those responsible for federal workforce, real estate portfolio, computer systems and file management.
The first movements of the Trump administration to upset the federal government were most strongly felt in the USAID after the president Placed a frost On most foreign aids.
In the separate court decision on Friday evening involving USAID, another The federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop its plans To put at least 2,200 employees to the agency on administrative leave and required the temporary reintegration of 500 other suspended workers.
This story has been updated with additional information.