A Manhattan judge on Tuesday ruled that restrictions on access by Elon Musk’s government efficiency program to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems were not meant to include Senate-confirmed agency officials.
The restrictions were put in place on Saturday by another judge after a suit by New York’s Letitia James and 18 other Democratic state attorneys general.
The suit argued that the Trump administration’s policy of allowing political appointees and “special government employees” access to the systems could allow leaks of sensitive information and might make the systems more vulnerable to hacking.
In her ruling, the judge, Jeannette A. Vargas of Federal District Court, said that the suit did not suggest that Secretary Scott Bessent and other senior Treasury officials “posed a threat of disclosure of sensitive and confidential information, or that their access would result in systems that would be more vulnerable to hacking.”
But Judge Vargas, who will handle the case going forward, denied the administration’s request to eliminate the restrictions on political appointees more broadly.
The Trump administration had argued that the original injunction by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, which blocked Mr. Musk’s aides from the Treasury data systems, impinged on President Trump’s absolute powers over the executive branch.
Mr. Trump on Saturday called the original injunction a “disgrace” and said that “no judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision.”
Ms. James’s office had no comment on the ruling; the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Saturday, Ms. James celebrated the original halt in a social media post, saying that the order would keep “Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, from accessing Americans’ private data.”
Judge Vargas has set a hearing for Friday in the case.
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