Late Wednesday, a joint motion was filed with a proposed order, where the DOJ and plaintiffs suing agreed that the Treasury Department “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service” to anyone connected with DOGE, except “special government employees” in the Treasury Department, Tom Krause and Marko Elez. Both will only be permitted to have “read only” access as needed to perform DOGE duties.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved the order Thursday, which was expected. She recommended this compromise in the lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Americans’ sensitive Treasury Department data.
The order allows the two “special government employees” hired by the Treasury to continue accessing payments data to further DOGE’s mission of eliminating government waste. But until the lawsuit is settled, DOGE and anyone outside the Treasury Department would be prohibited from reviewing that data directly, ensuring that nobody’s government financial data is shared with any third parties without consent or proper notice.
Kollar-Kotelly was assigned to this case Tuesday, but due to the sensitivity of the complaint, she appeared motivated to move quickly to ensure that no Americans’ private data is illegally shared with anyone outside of the Treasury Department. To that end, she grilled US Department of Justice lawyer Bradley Humphreys to find out exactly who has access to Treasury data and how they are connected to DOGE.
While maintaining that the rushed proceedings limited the DOJ’s understanding of the facts, Humphreys contradicted media reports suggesting several DOGE employees, including possibly Musk, had gained access to the data. He told the judge that only one special government employee hired by the Treasury Department, Marko Elez, has “read-only” access to the Treasury’s payment system.
However, Elez seems closely linked to Musk, who is often criticized for surrounding himself with sycophants. Elez, the temporary restraining order motion noted, is “an engineer who has worked for SpaceX and social-media platform X” before serving as an extension of DOGE now consulting within the Treasury Department.
Elez reports to Tom Krause, another Treasury Department special government employee, but Krause doesn’t have direct access to the payment system, Humphreys told the judge. Krause is the CEO of Cloud Software Group and is also viewed as a Musk ally. The order granted today now allows Krause to have the same “read only” access as Elez, but no other DOGE employees will be granted such access under today’s order. For now that could alleviate suspicions, as Wired reported, that Elez may have administrator access to write code or otherwise alter the payments system.
