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Watch: Ros Atkins on… Musk, Doge and the US authorities
A federal decide has blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing the private monetary knowledge of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Treasury Department information, in line with courtroom paperwork.
US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday to ban entry, ordering Musk and his workforce to instantly destroy any copies of information.
The transfer comes after 19 state attorneys common sued the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was given entry to the information.
They argued entry for Musk, a “special government employee”, and Doge, which isn’t an official authorities division, violated federal legislation.
In a publish on X, Musk referred to as the ruling “absolutely insane”.
“How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?” he wrote.
The Democratic state attorneys common sued Trump, the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday.
Engelmayer’s order, issued early on Saturday, mentioned the states would “face irreparable” hurt with out instant reduction.
“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 learn.
The order restrains the defendants from granting entry to Treasury Department information containing personally identifiable or confidential data to particular authorities workers, political appointees, and different workers from exterior the division.
The injunction restricts anybody else from accessing these information apart from civil servants who want to take action for his or her work on the Bureau of Fiscal Services and have handed background checks.
The decide additional ordered any particular person amongst these restricted to instantly destroy copies of information.
The situations will stay in place till the following courtroom listening to on 14 February.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was among the many coalition of attorneys common who introduced the lawsuit, mentioned the Trump administration had given Musk and Doge “unprecedented access” to non-public knowledge.
“Over the past week, my office has heard from more than a thousand New Yorkers who were afraid they would lose their privacy and the critical funding their communities count on because of Musk and DOGE’s interference,” she mentioned.
Tech titan and billionaire Musk has been closely concerned in upheaval throughout Trump’s second time period, with Doge main main cuts on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes billions of {dollars} of support globally.
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