Wisconsin joins lawsuit to seal treasury records from DOGE

The Trump administration has asked a federal judge to toss a temporary injunction blocking the administration from accessing what opponents say is sensitive personal data stored on the U.S. Treasury Department’s central payment system.

The administration’s bid is part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to find and root out waste and fraud and cut federal spending. Nineteen states, including Wisconsin, have sued to stop DOGE from obtaining what they say is personal information ranging from Social Security numbers to bank accounts numbers. 

DOGE says it not accessing any such information, only coded information like that used by auditors. Still, U.S. district judge Paul Engelmayer has issued an emergency preliminary injunction.

“The court’s firm assessment is that, for the reasons stated by the states, they will face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief,” Engelmayer wrote in his order. “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”

The ruling prohibits the administration from granting all political appointees, special government employees, and non-treasury federal employees access to treasury department payment systems or any other data maintained by the treasury department that contains personally identifying information.

What’s more, any DOGE staff members who had already accessed the system were ordered to “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the treasury department’s records and systems.”

On Sunday, the administration asked the judge to vacate the injunction. Musk himself was a bit Trumpian in a post on X:  “A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!”

In a separate post, Musk said DOGE’s mission was serious and necessary. Among other things, he wrote, “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.”

Separately, the treasury department sought to assuage concerned Democrats that personal and sensitive information was safe. It assured Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, that members of the Musk team only had “read-only” access to the payment system that uses coded data, similar to the type of access that auditors might have.

Jonathan Blum, the deputy assistant secretary, said the staff was headed by veteran treasury official Tom Krause, who was also a former technology executive.

“Mr. Krause is conducting this effort in coordination with veteran career treasury officials, and all operational processes continue to be conducted only by career treasury staff in accordance with all standard security, safety, and privacy standards,” Blum wrote to Wyden. “Mr. Krause is a longtime technology executive. His decades of experience in building companies and managing balance sheets as a chief financial officer are of great benefit to this review. In order to allow him to perform this function, he has been hired as an expert/consultant by the federal government and designated in a role commonly used across administrations—a ‘special government employee’ —pursuant to applicable law.”

The role involves a hiring process that includes a review of a candidate’s credentials and background, and demands the same ethical standards of privacy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest assessment, and professionalism of other government employees, Blum wrote.

“These assessments are conducted by career legal and ethics officials,” he wrote. “Mr. Krause is subject to the same security obligations and ethical requirements, including a Top Secret security clearance.”

Meanwhile in court, the administration asked the judge to withdraw his injunction.

“On its face, the order could be read to cover all political leadership within Treasury — including even secretary (Scott) Bessent,” the memorandum to the court stated. “This is a remarkable intrusion on the executive branch that is in direct conflict with Article II of the Constitution, and the unitary structure it provides. There is not and cannot be a basis for distinguishing between ‘civil servants’ and ‘political appointees.’” 

Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the president, the memo by the Department of Justice stated. 

“A federal court, consistent with the separation of powers, cannot insulate any portion of that work from the specter of political accountability,” the attorneys wrote. “No court can issue an injunction that directly severs the clear line of supervision Article II requires. Because the Order on its face draws an impermissible and anti-constitutional distinction, it should be dissolved immediately.”

As written, the DOJ asserted, the injunction is markedly overbroad.

“There is no sound reason that it should extend to treasury’s leadership, who are charged with overseeing and administering the department without interruption,” the attorneys wrote. “To the extent the order applies to senior political appointees at Treasury, it is an extraordinary and unprecedented judicial interference with a cabinet secretary’s ability to oversee the department he was constitutionally appointed to lead. Interfering with those basic functions, even for a day, will cause irreparable harm to the government. By contrast, plaintiffs have not even attempted to show how they would suffer any irreparable harm as a result of treasury’s political leadership being excluded from the temporary injunction.”

Democrats accuse Trump of “attacks on Americans”

Wisconsin is one of the 19 states suing the administration to stop DOGE’s access to treasury records.

In making its case, the lawsuit asserts that the Trump administration illegally provided Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system, and therefore to Americans’ most sensitive personal information, including bank account details and Social Security numbers. 

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) says the expanded access could allow Musk and his team to block federal funds to states and programs providing health care, child care, and other critical services. With the lawsuit, the DOJ says it is seeking to stop the administration’s new policy that illegally grants DOGE, Musk, and others access to Americans’ confidential information and the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems.

“Wisconsinites expect the federal government to treat their Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other sensitive personal details with the highest level of protection and confidentiality — and that obligation doesn’t go out the window just because Elon Musk says it should,” Gov. Tony Evers said in announcing the lawsuit. “Giving political appointees access to our most personal information like this is illegal. That’s plain as day.”

State attorney general Josh Kaul said Trump was putting the whims of Elon Musk ahead of Americans’ privacy and security: “We’ve gone to court to address this outrageous situation and to protect the American people.”

The state Democratic Party of Wisconsin went even further, saying that all signs suggest that  “Musk and the Republican DOGE gang” were zeroing in on a new target: Social Security. 

“On Sunday, Musk reposted a message from extreme Republican Sen. Mike Lee referring to hard-earned Social Security benefits Wisconsinites depend on as a ‘ripoff,’” the Democratic Party said in a statement. “This followed reporting identifying Social Security as the next target of illegal ‘DOGE’ defunding efforts that have already shuttered entire federal agencies and attacked public education and health care.”

Democratic Party of Wisconsin communications director Joe Oslund said the state party would fight the Republican DOGE attack on Social Security benefits at every turn. 

“Social Security isn’t a ‘ripoff’ or a ‘Ponzi scheme’ like Elon Musk and Ron Johnson seem to think —it’s a lifeline for our seniors that they earned over decades of hard work,” Oslund said. “The lawless DOGE attacks on the critical programs Wisconsinites depend on must end.”

The DOJ says the treasury department’s central payment system controls vital funding for millions of Americans, including Social Security payments, veteran’s benefits, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and more. The payment system also controls billions of dollars that states rely on to support essential services like law enforcement, public education, and infrastructure repairs, the agency asserted.

Access is limited by federal law to a select group of career civil servants with the appropriate security clearances, the DOJ states.

“Wisconsin and the coalition assert the Treasury Department’s new policy, which expands access to BFS’s payment system, violates the law, jeopardizes Americans’ most sensitive personal information, and would allow Elon Musk and other unauthorized political appointees to access a system that could permit them to freeze federal funds with the click of a button in violation of the Constitution,” the state DOJ said in a statement. 

With this lawsuit, the state DOJ says Wisconsin and the other states are seeking an injunction preventing the Trump administration from continuing its new policy of expanded access to BFS’s payment system, as well as a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful and unconstitutional.

States joining Wisconsin in filing the lawsuit include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The Trump administration has requested that the restraining order be stayed pending appeal if their petition to vacate is unsuccessful.

The next hearing in the states’ case in Manhattan federal court over DOGE employees’ access to sensitive personal data on the Treasury payment platform was scheduled for today.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.