Judge to Hear Arguments Over Musk’s Access to Sensitive Treasury Data
The New York Times
After a lawsuit filed last week by 19 attorneys general, a judicial ruling temporarily blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the information.
A case that could test the ability of other branches of government to act as a check on the Trump administration will begin Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where a judge will hear arguments over whether Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team should be granted access to the Treasury Department’s most sensitive payment and data systems.
On Saturday, a U.S. district judge in Manhattan, Paul A. Engelmayer, ordered that Mr. Musk and his team, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, be temporarily restricted from the Treasury’s systems, saying there was a risk of “irreparable harm.” The group’s access heightened the risk of leaks and hacking, Judge Engelmayer wrote.
The order was in response to a suit filed last week by 19 state attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York. The officials argued that the Trump administration’s new policy of allowing political appointees and “special government employees” such as Mr. Musk to access these systems was unlawful.
Federal prosecutors defending President Trump and the Treasury Department have argued that the courts do not have the right to usurp the president’s power to give access to federal agencies to whomever he chooses. The restrictions on Mr. Musk’s team, they wrote, are keeping the Treasury from making “management decisions within its lawful discretion regarding its own technological systems.”
On Friday, both sides will appear before a different federal judge, Jeannette A. Vargas, to make their case.
