A US judge has issued an emergency order barring Elon Musk‘s government reform team from accessing personal and financial data of millions of Americans stored at the treasury department, court documents revealed on Saturday.
The order prohibited treasury officials from granting access to payment systems and sensitive financial records to “all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the treasury department.”
The temporary order, which will remain in effect until a scheduled hearing on February 14, also mandates that any such individuals who have already accessed treasury data since President Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded.”
What is DOGE?
The name DOGE is reference to Elon Musk’s backing of dogecoin, a cryptocurrency originally created as a joke in 2021.
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Since President Trump’s January 20 inauguration, dogecoin’s value has dropped by nearly one-third.
Trump established DOGE through an executive order last month, integrating it directly into the executive branch rather than as an external advisory body. The order also rebranded the US digital service, a White House unit focused on government technology projects within the office of management and budget (OMB), as the US DOGE service.
“I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the department of government efficiency (DOGE),” Trump had declared.
According to social media posts from Elon Musk, the task force is focused on identifying federal contracts and expenditures that contradict President Trump’s policy priorities, particularly in areas like DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives and foreign aid.
“DOGE has now saved taxpayers over $1 billion in crazy DEI contracts,” Musk had said last month.
Why judge blocked DOGE team from treasury data
A coalition of 19 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Friday against Trump, the treasury department, and treasury secretary Scott Bessent, alleging that the administration illegally expanded access to sensitive treasury data for staff linked to Musk’s DOGE.
In his Saturday ruling, the judge said that the states suing the administration would suffer “irreparable harm” without immediate court intervention. He cited two key risks: the potential exposure of sensitive and confidential information and an increased vulnerability of Treasury systems to hacking under the new policy.
“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,” he wrote.
Although Musk is neither a federal employee nor a government official, US media recently reported that he had been registered as a “special government employee.”
While DOGE lacks full departmental status—requiring Congressional approval—Musk and his team have aggressively pushed through federal agencies, freezing foreign aid, slashing budgets, and attempting mass layoffs within weeks of the new administration taking office.