Federal Judge Restricts Musk Cronies' Access to Treasury Payment System

A federal judge on Thursday issued an interim order limiting access to a critical U.S. Treasury Department payment system that members of billionaire Elon Musk's team infiltrated last week with the blessing of President Donald Trump's handpicked Treasury chief, sparking widespread alarm and backlash.

The order came after the Alliance for Retired Americans and a pair of labor unions sued the Treasury Department on Monday for giving Musk lieutenants the keys to the vital payment system—access they reportedly attempted to use to cut off all U.S. Agency for International Development spending.

The lawsuit challenged Musk's team's access to the payment system on privacy grounds, and one observer described it as "one of the most important lawsuits in the history of the United States."

In her order on Thursday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia restricted "access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service" to a select group, including Tom Krause and Marko Elez—both of whom have ties to Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team—and regular Treasury Department employees.

An attorney for the U.S. Justice Department said during a court hearing earlier this week that Krause and Elez were made "special employees" of the Treasury Department.

Critically, the federal judge's order limits Krause and Elez to "read only" permissions, meaning they can view records and data but not make any changes.

Writer and researcher Nathan Tankus reported Thursday that Elez—a 25-year-old engineer who previously worked for two Musk-owned companies, SpaceX and the social media platform X—was at one point given both "read and write" privileges.

"None of this should be happening and it's only going to get worse the longer 'DOGE' is here and the more they learn about what they can do and get away with."

One unnamed source familiar with the situation told Tankus that Elez "shouldn't have access to this almost $5 trillion payment flow, even if it's 'read-only.'"

"He shouldn't even be at Fiscal Service," the source added. "None of this should be happening and it's only going to get worse the longer 'DOGE' is here and the more they learn about what they can do and get away with."

Kollar-Kotelly's order will remain in effect until the court rules on a preliminary injunction motion from the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union.

Nandan Joshi, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group—which is representing the plaintiffs in the ongoing legal fight over access to the vital Treasury system—said in a statement Thursday that "we're pleased that the court acted quickly to put in safeguards to protect people's personal information until the facts are sorted out."

"Americans who rely on Social Security and similar programs should be able to trust their government to handle their sensitive information with the utmost care," said Joshi. "No one should ever face having their personal information used for improper purposes without their consent, which is why we've brought this case."