Government Asks Court to Vacate Order Blocking Access to Treasury System
The President Donald Trump administration reportedly said in a Sunday (Feb. 9) court filing that a judge’s order blocking the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department payment systems also prevents Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from doing his job.
In its filing, the government argued that the temporary restraining should be vacated because it limits the power of Bessent and other high-level employees, Bloomberg reported Monday (Feb. 10).
The government also said in the filing that the order is a “remarkable intrusion” on the executive branch, according to the report.
The temporary order was granted hours after a group of states filed a lawsuit aiming to stop DOGE representatives from accessing systems that contain the personal information of millions of Americans who receive payments from the federal government, the report said.
The government said in its filing that Trump, Bessent and the Treasury Department are complying with the order but the orders’ limiting of access by the department’s senior leadership is overly broad.
The filing said, per the report, that “it is the responsibility of these officials — the appointees of a duly elected president — to receive information they require to carry out their mandate to govern the agency in accordance with the president’s priorities.”
A judge ordered lawyers from the two sides to try to reach a deal on whether to amend the temporary restraining order to allow access to the data by political appointees while denying it to DOGE representatives, according to the report.
The judge’s ruling to temporarily block DOGE from accessing the U.S. Treasury’s payment system was announced Saturday (Feb. 8) after a group of 19 attorneys general from Democrat-controlled states sued Trump and the Treasury, arguing that DOGE’s access to the data violates the law, PYMNTS reported Sunday (Feb. 9).
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a Saturday post on social platform X: “This morning, we won a court order blocking Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, from accessing Americans’ private data. Musk and his DOGE employees must destroy all records they’ve obtained. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: No one is above the law.”
This morning, we won a court order blocking Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, from accessing Americans’ private data.
Musk and his DOGE employees must destroy all records they’ve obtained.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: no one is above the law. https://t.co/2lCS2FD1MT
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 8, 2025
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