A group of 19 states, mostly led by Democrats, sued President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, for giving Elon Musk access unprecedented to personal data of millions of Americans.
Trump and Besent violated the federal law by allowing the efficiency team just created by Musk to access information from the Treasury Departmentaccording to the lawsuit filed on Friday night in New York. The case, together with a similar complaint filed earlier this week by unions, could delay what the president says is a plan to identify and reduce unnecessary expense.
The president created the Temporary Government Efficiency Department of the White House through an executive order and appointed Musk to lead what they describe as an effort to modernize federal technology and identify expenses of expenses. But the measure immediately generated legal concerns.
The general prosecutors of states such as New York and California said that Trump and Besent put the personal data of millions of people at risk, as well as billions of dollars in payments that States receive through the Treasury Fiscal Services Office, or BFS.
“The implementation on the part of Besent of the new broader access policy of the Treasury, which allows Musk and his team to access the BFS payment systems, It was adopted without any public announcement or explanation, ”the states argued. “The defendants have not contributed any reason to justify the new policy, nor the treasure made an evaluation of the impact on privacy before implementing the change.”
Legal challenges
The demand is the last of a wave of challenges to the executive orders and other measures of the president since he assumed the position last month, including his attempt to stop federal loans and subsidies, Eliminate the so -called citizenship by birth right and identify FBI agents and prosecutors who helped to present criminal cases against Trump and their supporters.
Critics have been giving alarm on Musk’s role since Doge staff began to enter the facilities of several agencies to access computer systems and physical spaces. The White House says that Musk, the richest person in the world who directs several companies, including Tesla Inc., is a special government employee: an official or employee of the executive branch of the federal government who normally provides services during a period of limited time.
On Friday, the American senator Ron Wyden of Oregon accused the treasure of deceiving Congress about the level of access that the administration has granted to the Allies of Musk. Besent has firmly supported Doge’s efforts.
Harrison Fields, Deputy Secretary of the main press of the White House, said in a statement that the demand of the states shows that the Democrats “They have no plan on how to recover from their shameful defeat” in the November elections.
“Instead of working to become a party that focuses on the will of the people, they are determined to keep their heads under the sand and make gas light on the widely supported mission of Doge,” said Fields. “Reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and becoming better dollar administrators earned with so much effort by US taxpayers can be a crime for Democrats, But it is not in a court of justice. ”
In the demand of the States, the general prosecutors affirm that Trump and Besent violated the Federal Administrative Procedures Law in numerous ways, even exceeding their legal authority and making decisions that were “arbitrary and capricious.”
The states also want a temporary restriction order and a judicial mandate that prevents the Treasury from accessing the payment data to people designated for political reasons or “special employees of the government.” The states also want anyone who obtains access to the data to pass background verifications and receive adequate security authorizations.
Before the claim was filed, New York Attorney General, Letitia James, said Doge was looking for Obtain access to payments specifically to stop the flow of federal funds to “essential programs”.
“Like the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is not used to being told ‘No’, but in our country nobody is above the law,” James said in a statement. “The president does not have the power to deliver our private information to whom he chooses, and cannot cut the federal payments approved by Congress.”
In the lawsuit filed by the unions, an American judge temporarily limited access to the Treasury Payment System. The unions accused Besent of illegally sharing the information of their members with Doge. The judge is considering a longer pause in the access by the Musk team while developing the demand of the unions.
The case is New York v. Trump, 25-CV-1144, United States District Court, South District of New York.
