By Jack Queen
(Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department has agreed not to give Elon Musk’s government efficiency agency access to its payment systems while a judge hears arguments in a lawsuit alleging the billionaire adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump illegally searched them.
The deal struck on Wednesday night by Treasury and a group of federal employee unions and retirees will for now prevent billions of sensitive government payment records from being turned over to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as part of its sweeping campaign to shrink the federal bureaucracy and crack down on allegedly wasteful and fraudulent spending.
In their Monday lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court, the employee unions and retirees said Treasury had violated privacy laws by giving Musk and DOGE “full access” to government payment records documenting everything from income tax payments to social security benefits and federal employee salaries.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Treasury lawyers denied violating privacy laws and said only two DOGE-affiliated people had been given read-only access to its payment systems. Both of those people were so-called special government employees of the Treasury, the lawyers said.
The government nonetheless reached an initial agreement with the plaintiffs that will prevent anyone else affiliated with DOGE from accessing the payment records while the case plays out.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Wednesday that the department’s payment system will not be touched by Musk, adding that any decisions to stop payments would be made by other agencies.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Amy Stevens and Mark Porter)
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