Elon Musk's DOGE Employees' Access to Treasury Restricted as Trump Admin Concedes to Lawsuit

Staffers and employees working for the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, have been temporarily barred from accessing data in the Treasury Department's payment system by the Department of Justice.

The Trump administration sought to enter a proposed order, filing a motion on Wednesday night to establish agreed-upon terms by which DOGE and the Treasury Department could collaborate, reported NBC.

"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 states.

Two special federal employees of the Treasury, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, are exempt from the regulations being established and are still permitted to access Treasury Department records "as needed" to do their jobs "provided that such access to payment records will be 'read only.'"

This comes after the Treasury Department was sued by union members and retirees, who stated that the department reportedly provided DOGE with access to the federal government's massive payment and collections system, a move which would violate federal privacy laws. Access to the Treasury Department's records will remain restricted for DOGE staffers until a subsequent hearing on the lawsuit is established.

The lawsuit alleges that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "decided behind closed doors to allow individuals not involved in the processing of the government's financial transactions to root around in the Bureau's records."

"Giving access to those records is unlawful," the filing said.

"And the longer that the private information of Plaintiffs' members remains accessible to unauthorized third parties, the greater the irreparable injury is. After all, as long as the sensitive data of Plaintiffs' members remains accessible to Mr. Musk and other members of DOGE, the more opportunity there is for that data to be disclosed to still more unauthorized third parties, either accidentally or deliberately," they added.

"The allegation that that information is being shared with third parties outside of Treasury is incorrect," attorney Bradley Humphreys said.