A U.S. judge temporarily limited access to the U.S. Treasury Department's payments system after a group of unions accused the agency of illegally sharing their members' information with Elon Musk's government efficiency group. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday issued an order, with the consent of the unions and the Treasury Department, that bars Treasury from providing access "to any," with some exceptions. The arrangement holds while she considers the unions' request for a longer pause as their lawsuit plays out.
The specific constraints of the
The order allows "read only" access to two "special government employees" Treasury recently brought in who are tied to Musk's group, known as DOGE. The two are Tom Krause, the chief executive of Cloud Software Group Inc., and Marko Elez, an engineer who has worked for Musk's SpaceX and social-media platform X. They have offices at Treasury, agency email addresses and clearance to access some secure but unclassified Treasury information, Bloomberg previously reported.
The White House has said that Musk, too, is a special government employee — an officer or employee in the executive branch of the federal government who typically serves for a limited period of time. President Donald Trump has tasked Musk and DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, with eliminating waste in government spending and modernizing federal information technology. DOGE's efforts have been met with resistance. Organizations including the AFL-CIO filed a separate suit against DOGE and the Labor Department Wednesday to stop people tied to DOGE from accessing those systems. The White House has said there is nothing improper about DOGE's activities.
"DOGE is fulfilling President Trump's commitment to making government more accountable, efficient, and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer's hard-earned dollars," it has said. "Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities."
At a hearing Wednesday, the judge questioned Bradley Humphreys, an attorney for the Treasury Department, on whether the records at issue have been shared outside Treasury or with Musk. The claim that the information was being shared with parties beyond Treasury "is incorrect as far as we know," said Humphreys. Monday's suit against Treasury and Scott Bessent, who heads the agency, cited reports that Bessent gave the DOGE team access to the federal payment system last week following the resignation of a career official at the department. The system holds confidential information on taxpayers, employees and companies, according to the suit.
