A federal judge has barred Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans stored in Treasury Department records, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday, ordering Musk and his team to immediately destroy any copies of the records in their possession.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general against the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was granted access to the sensitive records.
The attorneys general argued that Musk, a “special government employee,” and Doge, which is not an official government department, were violating federal law by obtaining this access.
In response to the ruling, Musk expressed his frustration in a post on X, calling it “absolutely insane.”
“How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?” Musk wrote.
The Democratic state attorneys general filed the lawsuit on Friday, naming President Trump, the Treasury Department, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants.
Judge Engelmayer’s order emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating that immediate action was necessary to prevent harm.
“That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking,” the order read.
The injunction prevents access to Treasury Department records containing personally identifiable or confidential information by special government employees, political appointees, and outside personnel.
It restricts such access to civil servants at the Bureau of Fiscal Services who require the information for their work and have undergone background checks.
Additionally, the judge ordered those covered by the restrictions to destroy any copies of the records immediately. The injunction will remain in place until the next court hearing on February 14.
New York Attorney General, Letitia James, one of the attorneys general behind the lawsuit, criticized the Trump administration for granting Musk and Doge “unprecedented access” to personal data.
“Over the past week, my office has heard from more than a thousand New Yorkers who were afraid they would lose their privacy and the critical funding their communities count on because of Musk and Doge’s interference,” James said.
Musk, the tech billionaire, has been a key figure in the disruption of federal operations during Trump’s second term.
Doge has led significant budget cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, an organization that manages billions of dollars in global aid.
