Judge partially blocks DOGE access to financial systems of Treasury Department

A federal judge partially blocked access to the Treasury Department’s financial systems by the Department of Government Efficiency over a lawsuit from a coalition of labor unions.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said that the DOGE workers could only have “read-only” access to the data at the Treasury Department after the unions’ attorneys argued that they were violating privacy statutes.

The unions are being represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.

President Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk with rooting out waste as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, and the billionaire entrepreneur took his mission to the Treasury Department.

The lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanded that the court put an “an immediate stop” to what plaintiffs described as the “systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records.”

Kollar-Kotelly allowed the DOGE only the ability to read the data but forbade Bessent to “provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.”

The unions are being represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.

Musk has been under fire for the actions he has taken to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Democrats are accusing him of acting unconstitutionally by shutting down offices like the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“What is happening here is illegal,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “This is an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) has announced that he would put a “blanket hold” on all Trump State Department nominees to protest the actions taken against USAID.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!