The Trump administration has filed a motion to vacate or modify a court’s temporary restraining order blocking the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and political appointees from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment records.
In the motion, Cloud Software Group, Inc. CEO Tom Krause argued that “it is important that high-level political appointees, such as the Treasury Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chief of Staff, and Under Secretaries, retain the ability to attend briefings concerning information obtained from the data or systems from Treasury employees with appropriate access to the data or systems in order to perform their job duties.”
Although Krause, who was working at Treasury as a special government employee, admitted that “these high-level officials do not ordinarily need to receive access to or review data from such systems,” he said an event could conceivably occur that could warrant them needing access.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order on Saturday that “political appointees, special government employees and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department access to Treasury Department payment systems or any other data maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information.”
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS LIMITED DOGE ACCESS TO SENSITIVE TREASURY DEPARTMENT PAYMENT SYSTEM RECORDS
Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Anyone covered under those categories who was given previous access to the sensitive data must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems,” the judge said.
This comes after a group of 19 attorneys general filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent alleging that the Trump Administration illegally provided DOGE with unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems.
Kollar-Kotelly had earlier said in a temporary restraining order on Thursday that Treasury officials “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service,” a program that handles an estimated 90% of federal payments.
Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images)
Thursday’s order came a day after the Justice Department agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two special government employees within DOGE who will have read-only permission. Kollar-Kotelly approved the motion in a brief order on Thursday.
The case in the Thursday order was brought by several government employee unions that sued over who could access the material as part of a government-wide evaluation of programs and systems led by DOGE. It argued that Bessent allowed DOGE improper access.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing certain Treasury Department payment records. (Associated Press)
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Under that order, only Krause and Marko Elez — an engineer and former Musk company employee — were allowed continued access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but that changed with Saturday’s order.
Krause and Elez were both named as special government employees in the Department of the Treasury, but Elez has since resigned.