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A federal judge in New York has temporarily blocked Elon Musk and his team to access the payment data of the United States Department of the Treasury, warning that he risked to lead to the dissemination of confidential information.
The order issued on Saturday morning gave a new legal blow to the billionaire of technology and the impulse of its closest allies to comb through federal payments in an attempt to reduce the costs of the United States government.
The measure of the court occurred in response to a legal challenge of 19 general prosecutors of the democratic state, who argued that the unofficial unit of “Government Efficiency Department” of Musk, which was created by President Donald Trump, should not have Access to personal information related to millions of Americans.
In the court order, Judge Paul Engelmayer of the South District of New York wrote that the “new policy” presented a risk of “dissemination of sensitive and confidential information” and a “high risk that the systems in question are more vulnerable than before piracy ”.
He ordered that any “political designated, special employees of the Government and any government employee” from outside the United States last month.
The order is expected to remain at least to a judicial hearing that has been established for February 14.
Musk replied, accusing Engelmayer of being “an activist who passes through a judge” on his social media platform X.
He also lashed out against Daniel Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, who demanded that Musk confirmed that he would comply with the court order and destroy any data that his team acquired.
“We have no personal data of Americans, you corrupt idiot,” Musk wrote in X, responding to Goldman.
The attorney general who presented the case said the order was an important victory. “Now Americans can trust that Musk, the richest man in the world, and his friends will not have a loose rein for his personal information while our demand proceeds,” said Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, in a statement.
The judge’s order highlights how the broad impulse of Trump and Musk to selectively reduce government spending faces its greatest obstacles in court, since the administration proves the limits of the Executive Power, as well as the United States Privacy Laws.
Earlier this week, a federal judge in the Columbia district ruled that strangers should not be given access to treasure payments data, in response to a separate legal challenge presented by representatives of retirees and government employees.
The White House has tried to calm the fears that Musk, which has been designated as a “special government employee”, is executing a dishonest operation. But Democrats are increasingly alarmed about the activities of their “dux.”
“Doge’s actions represent an invasion of two front safety and privacy fronts of Americans,” Ron Wyden wrote, the main democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, in a letter to the interim commissioner of the Social Security Administration, which Manage government pensions by millions of Americans.
The Department of the Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
