13 States To Sue Over DOGE Access To Government Payment Systems Containing Personal Data | EUROtoday

Democratic attorneys basic in a number of states vowed Thursday to file a lawsuit to cease Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal fee programs containing Americans’ delicate private data.

Thirteen attorneys basic, together with New York’s Letitia James, mentioned in a press release that they have been taking motion “in defense of our Constitution, our right to privacy, and the essential funding that individuals and communities nationwide are counting on.”

“As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is not used to being told ‘no,’ but in our country, no one is above the law,” the assertion mentioned. “The President does not have the power to give away our private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress.”

The White House didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Thursday afternoon.

Government officers and labor unions have been amongst these elevating considerations about DOGE’s involvement with the fee system for the federal authorities, saying it may result in safety dangers or missed funds for packages comparable to Social Security and Medicare.

Also Thursday, a federal choose ordered that two Musk allies have “read only” entry to Treasury Department fee programs, however nobody else will get entry for now, together with Musk himself. The ruling got here in a lawsuit filed by federal employees unions attempting to cease DOGE from following by on what they name an enormous privateness invasion.

It was not instantly clear when the Democratic attorneys basic will file their lawsuit.

Joining James within the assertion have been the attorneys basic of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

President Donald Trump tapped Musk, the world’s richest man, to shrink the dimensions of the U.S. authorities.

Democrats have criticized the tech billionaire’s maneuvers, which embrace the hostile seizure of taxpayer information and the obvious closure of the federal government’s main worldwide humanitarian support company.

DOGE just lately gained entry to delicate fee information inside the Treasury Department after Treasury’s appearing Deputy Secretary David Lebryk resigned below stress.

“This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” the attorneys basic mentioned. “DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on — payments that support health care, childcare, and other essential programs.”

Democratic members of Congress have expressed related considerations that Musk, an unelected citizen, wields an excessive amount of energy inside the U.S. authorities and states blatantly on his social media platform X that DOGE will shut down funds to organizations.

Musk has made enjoyable of the criticism of DOGE on X whereas saying it’s saving taxpayers tens of millions of {dollars}.

DOGE officers sought entry to the Treasury fee system to cease cash from flowing into the U.S. Agency for International Development, based on two individuals acquainted with the matter. That effort undermines assurances the division has on condition that it solely sought to overview the integrity of the funds and had “read-only access” to the system as a part of an audit course of.

The two individuals acquainted with the matter spoke Thursday to The Associated Press on situation of anonymity for concern of retaliation.

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein, Ellen Knickmeyer and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Washington.