Federal judge tightens DOGE leash over critical Treasury payment system access

Lawsuit: 'Scale of intrusion into individuals' privacy is massive and unprecedented'

Final update Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has had its access to US Treasury payment systems restricted - at least temporarily - following a lawsuit from advocacy groups and unions.

A federal court order [PDF], issued today by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC, limits DOGE's access to systems within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), granting just read-only privileges to just two DOGE aides who were just made special government employees at the Treasury: Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause, and 25-year-old Marko Elez, previously an engineer at Musk's social media giant X. 

It was reported earlier that Elez, at least, had gained privileged access to Treasury systems, as a DOGE operative.

What has DOGE been up to? There are various reports of the mysterious team, with President Trump's blessing, accessing highly sensitive systems, some involving personal data and classified materials, at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the General Services Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Dept of Education, at least.

This has included, it's said, analyzing sensitive Dept of Education data with AI tools in Microsoft's Azure cloud. All with the stated intention of rooting out inefficiencies and things to cut, aka things Elon Musk doesn't approve of.

So far it's reported those working on behalf of DOGE include Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, as well as Krause and Elez. Musk allies Anthony Armstrong, Riccardo Biasini, Brian Bjelde, Steve Davis, Stephen Ehikian, Nicole Hollander, Amanda Scales, Thomas Shedd, and Christopher Stanley have also been installed in Washington, it's said.

Meanwhile, Republicans are blocking Democrats' attempts to subpoena Elon Musk over his DOGE campaign.

The Treasury's BFS systems process the federal government's payments and collections, handling everything from Social Security disbursements to payments for government contractors. Because it manages these transactions, BFS maintains financial and personal data on millions of Americans who have received or sent funds to the federal government.

Concerned that this sensitive information was improperly disclosed to DOGE aides, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union sued the Treasury Department, arguing that DOGE's access violated privacy protections​.

Elon Musk pauses on stage to reach for the next government rack server to power off, at Trump's 2025 inauguration ... Click for source

In the lawsuit [PDF], filed on Monday, the groups accused Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of disclosing Americans' personal and financial information to individuals who lacked a "lawful and legitimate need" for access, in violation of federal privacy laws.

The lawsuit alleges that David A. Lebryk, the career official overseeing Treasury payment systems, initially rebuffed DOGE's access requests. However, after Scott Bessent was sworn in as Treasury Secretary, he placed Lebryk on administrative leave, and DOGE-affiliated individuals were reportedly granted full access to BFS data and systems.

"[Bessent] did so without making any public announcement, providing any legal justification or explanation for his decision, or undertaking the process required by law for altering the agency's disclosure policies," the suit argued. "The scale of the intrusion into individuals' privacy is massive and unprecedented." 

The order issued today by Judge Kollar-Kotell is technically a temporary restraining order [PDF]. This will remain in effect while the court reviews whether to issue a longer-term preliminary injunction​.

That proposed injunction aims to extend the just-granted restraining order, barring the Treasury Department from disclosing any personal information to DOGE-affiliated individuals. It would also require Bessent to ensure that any data already accessed by DOGE is retrieved and safeguarded​.

"We're pleased that the court acted quickly to put in safeguards to protect people's personal information until the facts are sorted out," lawyer Nandan Joshi of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is representing the plaintiffs, told The Register in an email.

"Americans who rely on Social Security and similar programs should be able to trust their government to handle their sensitive information with the utmost care," Joshi added. "No one should ever face having their personal information used for improper purposes without their consent, which is why we've brought this case."

The court has ordered the Treasury to respond to the motion for a preliminary injunction by February 12, with a hearing on the matter scheduled for February 24. 

Neither the Treasury, its DoJ lawyer assigned to the case, or the White House responded to questions. ®

Updated to add at 0005 UTC, February 7

On the same day as this court decision, Elez abruptly quit DOGE – after deleted racist tweets were surfaced and linked to him by a newspaper.

Final update on February 13

It was reported earlier that Elez was allowed to modify code directly in production within the Treasury, and had obtained read-write superuser privileges on some systems. But Joseph Gioeli, a career federal IT exec at the government department, has in an affidavit said Elez had in fact much more restricted access. See our final note here.

Bootnote

Cloud Software Group, which owns Citrix and Netscaler and from 2022 has been led by DOGE's Krause, is funded by Vista Private Equity, whose CEO Robert F. Smith coincidentally in 2020 agreed to pay the federal government $139 million for his involvement in what was alleged to be a huge "international tax fraud scheme."