February 07, 2025
Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Department of Government Efficiency, an unofficial team within the Trump administration that's headed by Elon Musk, has inspired recent protests, including above at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and 13 other attorneys general plan to sue to block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency staffers from accessing sensitive data.
The group said it would file a lawsuit to stop Musk's team from obtaining state bank account data and Americans' "personal private information" through the U.S. Department of the Treasury. DOGE, which is not a government department, received access to the Treasury's payments systems last week, the New York Times reported.
Musk, who has tasked DOGE with identifying and eliminating "inefficient" government spending, recently suggested that Treasury officials should be denying federal payments. The Trump administration later agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE employees' access following a court agreement from a separate lawsuit.
The coalition of state attorneys general planning their own litigation argues that DOGE is not authorized to handle "our country's most sensitive data."
“This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable," the attorneys general said in a statement. "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.
"In defense of our Constitution, our right to privacy, and the essential funding that individuals and communities nationwide are counting on, we will be filing a lawsuit to stop this injustice."
The attorneys general for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island and Vermont are also part of the coalition. All 14 are Democrats.
Platkin's office did not immediately respond to request for comment on when the lawsuit would be filed.
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