Federal Judge Won’t Restrict DOGE Access to Treasury Data

A federal judge Friday declined to block Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing data at the Department of the Treasury and the government’s payment systems as part of a lawsuit filed by advocacy and union groups. 

DOGE is still prevented from accessing the Treasury data and payment systems by an order in another lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general from 19 states.

Represented by the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, the advocacy and union groups sued DOGE and the Treasury last month over fears that their private information could be made public or shared with third parties.

District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a President Bill Clinton appointee, said Friday that the plaintiffs’ concerns were “understandable and no doubt widely shared” but that they failed to show how they would suffer irreparable harm from DOGE’s access to Treasury data and systems. 

“If Plaintiffs could show that Defendants imminently planned to make their private information public or to share that information with individuals outside the federal government with no obligation to maintain its confidentiality, the Court would not hesitate to find a likelihood of irreparable harm,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

“But on the present record, Plaintiffs have not shown that Defendants have such a plan,” the judge added. “If circumstances change, Plaintiffs are free to return to federal court to seek any proper emergency remedy.”

In addition to barring DOGE from Treasury data, courts have blocked Musk’s agency from data at the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Labor. Its access to Internal Revenue Service data has also been challenged.