United States: a judge blocks Elon Musk’s access to the American Treasury Payment System

New judicial obstacle to the reforms launched by US President Donald Trump. A federal judge in the United States blocked access to the US Treasury Payment System by the Commission on Government Effectiveness (DOGE) on Saturday. This entity is responsible by the president to reduce public spending and was entrusted to Elon Musk.

In a summary order, judge Paul A. Engelmayer prohibited access to data stored in the US Treasury to all persons appointed by political power: “All special government agents” as well as “all government employees detached by A Treasury outdoor agency ”.

“The greatest internal threat”

Elon Musk collaborators, appointed by Donald Trump at the head of the DOGE, had taken control of the American treasury paying system a few days ago, a measure denounced by elected democrats as being “extremely dangerous”.

“The only way to stop the fraud and waste of taxpayers’ money is to be able to follow payment flows and block suspect transactions to examine them,” said Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX boss , in a message posted on its social network X.

The case had been brought to justice by prosecutors of 19 American states, saying that the Trump administration had violated the law by expanding access to sensitive data from the Treasury to the members of the Dogey staff.

These states “would suffer irreparable damage in the absence of injunctive measures,” said judge Engelmayer in his order. “It is due both to the risk that the new policy of disclosure of sensitive and confidential information presents as well as to the increased risk that the systems in question are more vulnerable than before to hacks,” he wrote .

This takeover of the treasury payment system by the richest man in the world had also been challenged by unions and human rights groups. According to an internal note from the US Treasury, the access of the DOGE team to federal payment systems constitutes “the greatest internal threat to which the tax service office has ever been confronted,” American media reported.