A district judge has finally ruled in favor of something that President Donald Trump has wanted.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled on Tuesday, in a lawsuit brought by Democrat-led states, that four Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can access the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which distributes trillions of dollars in payments, The Epoch Times reported.
The Treasury Department system has allowed access to four members of the DOGE team: Thomas Krause, Linda Whitridge, Samuel Corcos, and Todd Newnam. The judge bristled at the lawsuit as it was brought after another DOGE team member, Ryan Wunderly, was allowed to access the systems in a ruling in April.
“There is little utility in having this Court function as Treasury’s de facto human resources officer each time a new team member is onboarded,” the judge said.
She said that the four members of DOGE “have satisfied the conditions to be carved out of the definition of Restricted Personnel, [and] they shall be permitted access to Treasury Payment Systems on the same terms as Wunderly.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, however, Defendants are not required to obtain a judicial determination that a particular individual has satisfied the Training, Vetting and Mitigation Procedures before such person may be granted access to Treasury Payment Systems,” she said.
In February, New York AG Letitia James said that she and 18 other attorneys general had filed the lawsuit.
“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,” James said in the press release.
“President Trump does not have the power to give away Americans’ private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress. Musk and DOGE have no authority to access Americans’ private information and some of our country’s most sensitive data. I am taking action to keep our information secure, and to prevent any unconstitutional freeze on essential funding that Americans rely on every day,” she said.
“Beginning February 2, 2025, the Trump administration’s Treasury Department adopted a new policy that grants ‘special government employees,’ including Elon Musk and members of DOGE, access to its central payment system operated by the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS). This central payment system controls vital funding that millions of Americans depend on, including Social Security payments, veteran’s benefits, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and more. The payment system also controls billions of dollars that states rely on to support essential services like law enforcement, public education, and infrastructure repairs,” the press release said.
“Access to BFS is limited by federal law to a select group of career civil servants with the appropriate security clearances. Attorney General James and the coalition assert the Treasury Department’s new policy, which expands access to BFS’s payment system, violates the law, jeopardizes Americans’ most sensitive personal information, and would allow Elon Musk and other unauthorized political appointees to access a system that could permit them to freeze federal funds with the click of a button in violation of the Constitution,” it said.
“With this lawsuit, Attorney General James and the coalition of attorneys general are seeking an injunction preventing the Trump administration from continuing its new policy of expanded access to BFS’s payment system, as well as a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful and unconstitutional,” it said.
But Trump administration attorneys said that what the attorneys general asked for is an overreach.
“Plaintiffs confirm in their opposition that they seek something remarkable: A court order commanding that a segment of an executive agency be cordoned off from properly named ‘political appointees,’ while giving access to select ‘civil servants,’” the attorneys said.
“The government is aware of no example of a court ever trying to micromanage an agency in this way, or sever the political supervision of the Executive Branch in such a manner,” they said.