The lawsuit was filed on Friday by Letitia James from New York and supported by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The attorneys general stated that the president granted «virtually unlimited access» to the most secret information of the federal government to young aides working for Elon Musk, who leads the program on behalf of the administration, although he is not actually a department, writes The New York Times.
Musk's team gained access to the government's most important computer data, including the US Treasury's payment system, which is used to disburse funds, including social security benefits, veterans' benefits, and federal employees' salaries.
This system, through which about 90% of US government payments pass, spent approximately $6.75 trillion in the last fiscal year, disbursing funds directly to state residents as well as state governments, according to the lawsuit.
Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer on Saturday temporarily restricted Elon Musk's government efficiency program's access to the Treasury's payment and data systems, stating that there is a risk of causing «irreparable harm».
The new Trump administration policy allowing political appointees and «special government employees» to access these systems containing highly classified information, such as bank details, increases the risk of leaks and makes the systems more vulnerable to hacking than before, the district judge stated in his emergency order.
He also ordered all officials who gained access to the systems after January 20 to «destroy all copies of materials downloaded from Treasury records and systems» and prohibited the Trump administration from granting access to these categories of officials.
According to Judge Engelmayer's order, the defendants — President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and the Treasury Department — must appear in court on February 14 before Judge Jeannette A. Vargas, who is handling the case on a permanent basis.
Before President Trump took office last month, access to treasury payment systems was granted only to a limited number of government officials with security clearance. But Musk's efforts have already disrupted federal funding for medical clinics, preschools, and climate initiatives.
«Musk and DOGE do not have the authority to access Americans' private information and some of the most confidential data of our country», — the prosecutors' statement said.