WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge in Washington refused Friday to block employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury systems containing sensitive personal data for millions of Americans.
She acknowledged, however, privacy concerns about their work. DOGE is still limited by a different court order in New York.
In Washington, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly previously restricted DOGE’s work at Treasury to two employees with read-only access, with the Trump administration’s cooperation. One of those workers later resigned after being linked with social media posts that espoused racism; Musk said he would be rehired.
Kollar-Kotelly, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, declined Friday to grant a longer-term block. Her decision comes in a lawsuit filed by retirees and union leaders who fear DOGE’s activities could expose sensitive information.
Their concerns are “understandable and no doubt widely shared,” she found. But right now, the plaintiffs haven’t shown they’re at immediate risk of lasting damage from the small team obligated to keep the information confidential, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
“Merely asserting that the Treasury DOGE Team’s operations increase the risk of a catastrophic data breach or public disclosure of sensitive information … is not sufficient to support a preliminary injunction,” she wrote.
Kollar-Kotelly left the door open for the people who sued to come back if new evidence of immediate risk emerges, saying she “would not hesitate” to grant a block if there’s evidence of risky information sharing.
In Manhattan, meanwhile, a federal judge has barred DOGE from Treasury systems in a court order granted last month in response to a lawsuit by 19 Democratic attorneys general.
