{"id":58130,"date":"2025-02-07T00:13:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T00:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/federal-judge-tightens-doge-leash-over-critical-treasury-payment-system-access\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T00:13:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T00:13:32","slug":"federal-judge-tightens-doge-leash-over-critical-treasury-payment-system-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/federal-judge-tightens-doge-leash-over-critical-treasury-payment-system-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge tightens DOGE leash over critical Treasury payment system access"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated<\/span> Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has had its access to US Treasury payment systems restricted – at least temporarily – following a lawsuit from advocacy groups and unions.<\/p>\n

A federal court order<\/a> [PDF], issued today by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC, limits DOGE<\/a>‘s access to systems within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), granting just read-only privileges to just two DOGE aides who were just made special government employees at the Treasury: Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause<\/a>, and 25-year-old Marko Elez, previously<\/a> an engineer at Musk’s social media giant X. <\/p>\n

It was reported<\/a> earlier<\/a> that Elez, at least, had gained sysadmin-level access to Treasury systems, as a DOGE operative, and had already pushed code direct into production there to make it easier to block payments.<\/p>\n

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What has DOGE been up to?<\/strong><\/em> There are various reports of the mysterious team, with President Trump’s blessing, accessing highly sensitive systems, some involving personal data and classified materials, at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the General Services Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Dept of Education, at least.<\/p>\n

This has included, it’s said<\/a>, analyzing sensitive Dept of Education data with AI tools in Microsoft’s Azure cloud. All with the stated intention of rooting out inefficiencies and things to cut, aka things Elon Musk doesn’t approve of.<\/p>\n

So far it’s reported<\/a> those working on behalf of DOGE include Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, as well as Krause and Elez. Musk allies Anthony Armstrong, Riccardo Biasini, Brian Bjelde, Steve Davis, Stephen Ehikian, Nicole Hollander, Amanda Scales, Thomas Shedd, and Christopher Stanley have also been installed in Washington, it’s said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Republicans are blocking<\/a> Democrats’ attempts to subpoena Elon Musk over his DOGE campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Treasury’s BFS systems process the federal government’s payments and collections, handling everything from Social Security disbursements to payments for government contractors. Because it manages these transactions, BFS maintains financial and personal data on millions of Americans who have received or sent funds to the federal government.<\/p>\n

Concerned that this sensitive information was improperly disclosed to DOGE aides, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union sued the Treasury Department, arguing that DOGE’s access violated privacy protections\u200b.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/a><\/p>\n

Elon Musk pauses on stage to reach for the next government rack server to power off, at Trump’s 2025 inauguration … Click for source<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the lawsuit<\/a> [PDF], filed on Monday, the groups accused Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of disclosing Americans’ personal and financial information to individuals who lacked a “lawful and legitimate need” for access, in violation of federal privacy laws.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that David A. Lebryk, the career official overseeing Treasury payment systems, initially rebuffed DOGE’s access requests. However, after Scott Bessent was sworn in as Treasury Secretary, he placed Lebryk on administrative leave, and DOGE-affiliated individuals were reportedly granted full access to BFS data and systems.<\/p>\n