A federal judge has ruled for limited access to sensitive records from the Treasury Department’s payment system for DOGE.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing certain Treasury Department payment records.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued the restraining order, stating that Treasury officials are prohibited from granting DOGE access to any payment records or systems managed by the Bureau of Fiscal Service. That system is responsible for handling roughly 90% of federal payments.
The order follows a proposed agreement from the Justice Department to limit access to the sensitive records. Under the arrangement, only two designated “special government employees” within DOGE will be granted read-only access. The judge approved the motion, ensuring no changes can be made to the program by these individuals.
The case was initiated by several government employee unions concerned about improper access to sensitive financial data as part of a government-wide program review led by DOGE. The lawsuit alleged that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent improperly allowed access to members of Elon Musk’s team, raising concerns about potential exposure of personal financial information.
According to the court order, only Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, an engineer and former employee of Musk’s companies, will retain access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service records. Both are identified as “Special Government Employees” in the Department of the Treasury and will be restricted to read-only access with no authority to modify the system.
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