DOGE can access sensitive Treasury payment systems, judge rules
CNN
The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency can now access sensitive Treasury Department systems that control trillions of dollars of payments and contain private information for millions of Americans, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency can now access sensitive Treasury Department systems that control trillions of dollars of payments and contain private information for millions of Americans, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas said in her ruling that she was clearing the way for the Elon Musk-backed team at the Treasury to access these systems because the Trump administration has created a process to train the DOGE staffers and prevent improper disclosures of private data. A coalition of 19 states, all with Democratic attorneys general, filed the lawsuit earlier this year to block DOGE from accessing the payment systems. The Democratic states did not oppose the DOGE team at Treasury accessing the systems as long as they receive proper training, Vargas noted. “The parties are in agreement that … the New DOGE Employees should be permitted to have access to (Bureau of the Fiscal Service) payment systems,” Vargas wrote Tuesday. CNN has reached out to the Treasury Department for comment. Back in February, Vargas blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury’s payment systems, finding that the Trump administration acted in a “chaotic and haphazard” way and failed to “adequately consider” the privacy and security risks of letting Musk’s team touch the data.
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