Trump administration puts restrictions on Musk’s DOGE
Lawyers with the US Justice Department have agreed to a proposed order that would temporarily restrict the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive financial data at the Treasury Department.
The move by the administration of US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday comes in response to a lawsuit by a group of union members and retirees accusing the Treasury of engaging in “unlawful action” by providing information on payments and private data to DOGE.
“The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the proposed order read.
An exception would only be made for two special government employees at the Treasury associated with Musk — Tom Krause and Marko Elez. According to the document, the duo would be permitted access “as needed” to perform their duties, “provided that such access to payment records will be ‘read only’.”
Krause is the former CEO of Cloud Software Group, while Elez, 25, has worked as an engineer at Musk’s X and SpaceX. Once approved by US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the case, the restrictions on DOGE’s access to Treasury data will remain in place until a hearing on February 24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Justice Department lawyer Bradley Humphreys trenchantly denied claims that the Treasury was sharing the personal information of US citizens. The are no plans for the special government employees working at the agency to provide any of its data to Musk or anyone outside the Treasury, he insisted.
The DOGE, established by Trump and led by his ally Musk, who also holds the status of a special government employee, aims to identify and eliminate wasteful US government spending. The tech billionaire has set a goal of reducing the federal deficit by at least $1 trillion, which would require daily cuts averaging $4 billion. In a post on X on Monday, Musk described DOGE as “the wood chipper for bureaucracy.”
