New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other state attorneys general sued President Donald Trump’s administration Friday in an effort to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal data housed in the Treasury Department.
In the lawsuit, James pointed to DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system and sensitive data housed in it, including their states’ residents’ bank account details and Social Security numbers.
The coalition of attorneys general argued that granting such access to Musk and DOGE was unlawful and unconstitutional. They are seeking an injunction.
“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,” said James in a statement, adding that Trump does not have the authority to “give away Americans’ private information to anyone he chooses.”
“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,” James added.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
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This is not the first time that James has sued Trump. She led a civil fraud case against Trump, which resulted in a $486 million judgment against him last year.
The states joining New York in Friday’s lawsuit include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, comes days after retirees and union members filed a similar suit in Washington, arguing that Musk and DOGE’s expanded access to the government’s payment system and its data violated federal privacy laws. That suit sought to bar DOGE — an advisory group created by Trump — from accessing the data and required the return of any data that has already been collected.
Attorneys for the Justice Department subsequently agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE staffers from accessing the data, creating an exception for two special government employees at the Treasury who are permitted to access payment records in a “read only” capacity “as needed” to perform their duties. That agreement will stay in place until at least Feb. 24 when the judge is expected to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction.
Musk’s actions leading DOGE have sparked sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers, a group of which held a protest outside of the Treasury Department headquarters on Tuesday casting Musk as an “unelected billionaire” who has been granted improper and excessive access to Americans’ sensitive data.
“We cannot allow Elon Musk and a small group of people to secretly, behind close doors, take away our privacy, take away our dollars, take away everything we have,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said while speaking at the protest Tuesday.
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