A U.S. judge issued an emergency order early Saturday, blocking Elon Musk's government reform team from accessing personal and financial data stored at the Treasury Department, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's ruling prohibits granting access to Treasury Department payment systems and other sensitive data to “all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department.”
This temporary order, which remains in effect until a hearing on February 14, also mandates that anyone who has accessed Treasury records since Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded.”
Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, is leading Trump’s federal cost-cutting initiative under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The case was filed Friday by the attorneys general of 19 states against Trump, the Department of the Treasury, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The attorneys general argue that the administration broke the law by expanding access to sensitive Treasury data to staff members from Musk’s DOGE.
Judge Engelmayer’s order stated that the states involved in the lawsuit would suffer “irreparable harm” without an injunction. He cited the risk of disclosing sensitive information and the heightened danger of hacking due to the new policy.
Musk’s team sparked controversy last week when reports emerged suggesting they had accessed sensitive data stored at the Treasury Department.
An internal assessment from the Treasury referred to the DOGE team's access to federal payment systems as “the single biggest insider threat the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced,” according to U.S. media reports.
Meanwhile: China has strongly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to displace the people of Gaza from their homeland forcibly.
In a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated that Trump was overstepping his bounds, emphasizing that Gaza is not part of the United States. Read more....
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