US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer has blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records.
This was stated in court documents obtained by journalists on Saturday.
The federal judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting access and ordering Musk’s team to immediately destroy any copies of the records.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general against the Trump administration after DOGE, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was granted access to the records.
They argued that allowing Musk, a “special government employee”, and DOGE, which is not an official government department, to access the records violated federal law.
Engelmayer’s order, issued early on Saturday, stated that the states would “face irreparable harm” without immediate relief.
“That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents—the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information—and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking,” the order read.
The White House, President Donald Trump, and Musk have yet to comment on the ruling.