A federal judge has barred Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records, as stated in court documents.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction blocking access and ordered Musk and his team to destroy any existing copies of the records immediately.
The ruling follows a lawsuit by 19 state attorneys general against the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was granted access to the records.
The attorneys general argued that allowing Musk, a “special government employee,” and Doge, which is not an official government agency, to access these records violated federal law.
The White House, President Donald Trump, and Musk have not issued an immediate response.
On Friday, Democratic state attorneys general filed suit against Trump, the Treasury Department, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Engelmayer’s order, issued early Saturday, warned that without immediate intervention, the states would “face irreparable” harm.
“That is both because of 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 order stated.
The ruling prevents the defendants from granting access to Treasury records containing personally identifiable or confidential information to special government employees, political appointees, or any personnel outside the department.
The injunction further limits access to civil servants at the Bureau of Fiscal Services who require it for their work and have undergone background checks.
The judge also mandated that any restricted individual must immediately destroy any copies of the records.
These conditions will remain in effect until the next court hearing on February 14.
Billionaire tech mogul Musk has played a major role in changes during Trump’s second term, with Doge spearheading significant cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which oversees billions in global aid distribution.
