New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the Trump administration over an alleged unauthorized access to sensitive Treasury Department records.
The lawsuit, filed along with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and over a dozen other states, is one of the most significant data breach cases in U.S. history.
The lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s authority to use DOGE to access personal financial data, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and biometric information.
“We stand together to stop Elon Musk and his army of tech bro-wannabe storm troopers from tearing up the Treasury Department,” Tong said at a news conference ahead of the court hearing.
In a joint statement, James and 11 other attorneys general stated that Trump has no legal or constitutional authority to control federal spending via DOGE or any other similar means.
“Last week, Elon Musk and his team got into our nation’s central payment system in the Treasury Department, giving them unauthorized access to the Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other private data of tens of millions of Americans,” the statement read.
The lawsuit resulted in a court order blocking Musk and DOGE from accessing the personal information of American citizens and requiring them to destroy any records they had obtained.
However, the Justice Department countered that the Treasury Department was simply carrying out the priorities of the new administration and that the access granted to DOGE was lawful.
“There’s nothing unlawful about the Treasury carrying out the priorities of a new administration using special government employees,” the Justice Department’s attorneys argued in response to the 19 attorneys general who contested Musk’s group’s access to the sensitive information.
A federal judge, while not issuing a final ruling, extended an earlier order restricting Musk and DOGE’s access to Treasury systems. Legal experts suggest that a final decision could take months, as this lawsuit is one of many challenging the Trump administration’s sweeping executive actions in its first month in office.
According to Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, the case touches on the integrity of the nation’s payment systems.
“We’ve never imagined the U.S. government being in potential default in these kinds of domestic obligations. This is about as precious of a data source that we have,” she said.
Jacob Leibenluft, a former senior Treasury and Office of Management and Budget official under President Biden, warned of the potential dangers of Musk’s involvement.
“These systems require extreme care,” Leibenluft stated. “I think there are many reasons to doubt that this particular team is doing so.”
