A federal judge’s order barring DOGE from accessing Treasury Department data is vague enough that some legal experts believe it even blocks the agency’s secretary from reviewing records and systems, prompting Republicans to blast what they consider judicial overreach.
U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Paul Engelmayer, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued a temporary restraining order Saturday that sided with 19 Democratic state attorneys general who claimed that giving DOGE “full access” to the Treasury’s payment systems violates the law. The lawsuit was spearheaded by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime Trump foe who said her office is “prepared to fight back” after President Donald Trump’s November election win.
“The judge’s order is rightly being attacked as, at worse, barring the secretary of the Treasury from accessing the Treasury Department’s databases and at best, at being hopelessly ambiguous and confusing,” the Federalist’s senior legal correspondent Margot Cleveland told Fox News Digital on Sunday of the order.
The judge’s sweeping order, issued Saturday, bars DOGE from accessing the Treasury system until at least Feb. 14, when Engelmayer scheduled a hearing to revisit the matter.
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Scott Bessent testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination to be secretary of the Treasury, on Capitol Hill, on Jan. 16, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The language of the order specifically bars “political appointees, special government employees, and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department access to Treasury Department payment systems or any other data maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information.” Trump, Secretary Scott Bessent and the U.S. Treasury are named as defendants in the case.
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President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk arrive to view a launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Conservatives and legal experts on social media have slammed the language of the order for reportedly also barring Bessent from Treasury data.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Treasury, White House and the Southern District on Sunday for comment, but did not immediately receive replies.
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“To comprehend how bad Judge Engelmayer’s decision was granting [a temporary restraining order] barring the Secretary of the Treasury Dept as well as DOGE & every other political appointee from accessing data, you need to compare to parallel case where a judge denied injunction,” Cleveland posted to X.
Others on social media argued the order does not bar Bessent from accessing the data, only barring him from granting access to the data to political appointees, special government employees, and government officials outside of the Treasury Department.
Cleveland told Fox News Digital on Sunday that beyond the vague language in the order, the attorneys general lack standing to challenge DOGE and the Treasury.
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“There is a more fatal flaw to the [temporary restraining order]: The Plaintiffs utterly lack standing to challenge DOGE and the Treasury Department’s decision to grant read-only access to select members of that executive agency’s team. With read-only access, DOGE cannot possibly use access to the Treasury Department’s system to freeze grants to the Blue States or their citizens; nor does such read-only access subject Plaintiffs to a higher hack-risk. And without standing, there is no basis to bring a lawsuit, much less to justify the TRO,” she said.
Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (Getty Images)
Bessent sent a letter to Congress early last week detailing that DOGE was given “read only” access to the Treasury data, and that the investigation has “not caused payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed.”
DOGE, led by Musk, has been on an investigation blitz of the federal government to stamp out government overspending and fraud. Musk reported after Engelmayer’s ruling that DOGE had already reportedly uncovered fraud at the national treasury.
“[Friday], I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” Musk wrote hours after the ruling.
“When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!! This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.”
Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the order Sunday, slamming it as a judge trying to control “the executive’s legitimate power.”
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“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he posted to X.
Vice President JD Vance claps at campaign event. (Getty Images)
Musk seethed following the order that Engelmayer should be “impeached.”
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“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!” he said in response to another social media post reporting Bessent was reportedly blocked from accessing his own agency’s data.
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
