Obama-appointed federal judge blocks Musk and DOGE from accessing Treasury payment system

A federal judge on Saturday blocked Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department payment records for at least one week.

According to Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer’s order, access would be limited to “civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties within the Bureau of Fiscal Services who have passed all background checks and security clearances and taken all information security training called for in federal statutes and Treasury Department regulations.”

Political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department, would also be “restrained from granting access” to any Treasury Department payment records, payment systems or “any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees.”

Engelmayer, a judge appointed by former President Obama, issued the order after an emergency request from 19 Democratic state attorneys general who argued that their residents were at risk if DOGE had access to the records.

The order is in effect for at least one week. A hearing in the case is scheduled for February 14.