OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:23 PM – Thursday, February 6, 2025
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was temporarily denied access to specific Treasury Department payment information by a federal judge on Thursday after cries from the Democrat Party erupted this week.
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Additionally, the Justice Department informed the judge on Wednesday that Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, does not have direct access to private data about millions of Americans that is stored in Treasury Department payment systems, according to outlet WUSA9 – based in Washington, D.C., and affiliated with CBS.
Nevertheless, in a temporary restraining order, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stated that Treasury personnel “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service.”
Judge Kollar-Kotelly serves as a senior federal judge in the District of Columbia’s U.S. District Court. Former Democrat President Bill Clinton nominated her, and she joined the court in 1997, according to BallotPedia.
Every year, the Treasury Department’s systems manage around $6 trillion. Social Security, Medicare, federal employee salaries, grant payments, government contractor payments, and tax refunds are all distributed by it.
Roughly 90% of federal payments are processed through that program.
The order follows the Justice Department’s Wednesday agreement in a proposed court order to grant read-only clearance to two “special government employees” within DOGE to examine the sensitive material. On Thursday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly issued a brief order approving the motion.
As part of a DOGE-led government-wide review of programs and systems, some government employee unions comprised of critics of Musk had filed a lawsuit over access to the material.
According to the lawsuit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allegedly gave Musk’s team improper access—with some Democrat officials claiming that it could have possibly exposed private financial data to “unauthorized” parties.
Meanwhile, Musk ally Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, an engineer and former employee at one of Musk’s companies, will be permitted access to the Treasury’s Fiscal Service under the order. However, they will not be permitted to alter the program in any way.
In the order, Krause and Elez are both listed as “Special Government Employee[s] in the Department of the Treasury.”
On Thursday, Musk asserted on X that: “Billions of taxpayer dollars to known FRAUDULENT entities are STILL being APPROVED by Treasury.
“This needs to STOP NOW!” He continued.
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