New York Attorney General Letitia James and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced that they would sue the Trump administration over Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s illegal access to Americans’ private information.
On Feb. 7, James led a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an effort to stop the unauthorized disclosure of Americans’ private information. The lawsuit asserts that Elon Musk and DOGE were illegally provided unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system and, therefore, to Americans’ most sensitive personal information.
A federal judge in the Southern District of New York granted James’ motion for a temporary restraining order of Feb. 8, blocking Musk and his DOGE employees from accessing Americans’ most sensitive personal information and ordering them to immediately destroy any and all copies of records they had already obtained.
Then, on Feb. 14, James and a coalition of 11 attorneys general released a statement ahead of a court hearing in their case against the Trump administration. Joining James in the statement were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon.
“Last week, Elon Musk and his team got into our nation’s central payment system in the Treasury Department, giving them unauthorized access to the Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other private data of tens of millions of Americans. To protect our states’ residents, we filed a lawsuit to stop the madness. Just a few hours later, we won a court order blocking Musk and DOGE from accessing Americans’ personal information and ordering the destruction of all the copies of records they had obtained,” the statement read. “Elon Musk may be the richest man in the world, but the law is clear: he has no authority to access your private information. The Constitution gives Congress – not the President – primary control over federal spending.”
On Feb. 14, James and Tong addressed the crowd, many of whom were holding signs with statements against Musk. Both Attorney Generals said they will fight for the people and knock down any specific thing that the Trump administration touches.
“We will continue to be there for people who can’t defend themselves,” said Tong.
The coalition a preliminary injunction to continue to bar the unauthorized access to Americans’ personal data through the Treasury’s payment system.
“Elon was not voted in by the people,” James said on Friday. “The American people deserve better. We will be in the courthouse time and time again. The American people will not back down.”
