A federal judge has temporarily blocked the appointments and special government employees, including those working for the Government Ministry, or DOGE, access to sensitive and confidential information stored within the Treasury Department .
The decision comes after 19 State Prosecutors continued the federal government Friday, alleging that the Elon Musk technology magnate and its DOGE employees did not have the power to access the data from the Treasury Department which include the Social Security numbers of the Americans and other confidential financial information.
The American district judge, judge Paul A. Engelmayer, made the temporary prohibition order, which prevents the government from granting access to all people appointed policies, special government employees and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department, to any Treasury Department payment file, payment systems, or any other data system maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and / or financial information confidential beneficiaries. »»
The order of Engelmayer also requires that anyone in groups that may have had an earlier access to this sensitive data, because Trump took up his functions “to immediately destroy all copies of equipment downloaded from the files and systems of the Treasury department ”.
A hearing has been scheduled for February 14 for arguments at the request of the Attorney General for a preliminary injunction in the case.
The White House judged the decision “exceeding” and called the “activist” judge.
“These frivolous proceedings are similar to children throwing pasta on the wall to see if it will stick. Waste, fraud and abuse,” said the deputy press secretary of the White House, Harrison Fields, in a statement sent to NBC News .
The Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comments on this story.
In A case similar to Washington Earlier this week, a group of union members and retirees also continued the government, alleging that the ability of DOGE staff to access data from the Treasury Department has violated federal privacy laws.
Trump administration Wednesday agreed to block all the employees of Doge except two – Tom Krause and Marko Elez – access to data and said that Krause and Elez would only receive sensitive data “if necessary … provided that these access to payment records are” read “.” “”
Elez was taken in a separate controversy on Friday when he resigned from Doge after TIl Wall Street Journal The linked to a now missing social media account which married racist and eugenic opinions.
After the vice-president JD Vance defended Elez online, Write in an article on x that “I do not think that the stupid activity of social media should ruin the life of a child”, Musk promised to reintegrate it In its role at Doge.