13 States to sue Dogge Access to State Payment Systems containing Personal Data

Democratic lawyers in general in several states promised on Thursday to file a trial to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in accessing federal payment systems containing Americans’ sensitive personal information.

Thirteen Attorneys General, including New York’s Latitia James, said in a statement that they took action “in defense of our constitution, our right to privacy and the essential funding that individuals and communities nationwide expect.”

“As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is not used to being told ‘no’, but in our country no one is above the law,” the statement states. “The president does not have the power to give away our private information to someone he chooses, and he cannot reduce federal payments approved by Congress.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

Government officials and unions have been among those who raise concerns about Dog’s commitment to the payment system for the federal government and said it could lead to security risks or missed payments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Also on Thursday, a federal judge ordered that two Musk -allies have “read only” access to the Treasury Department payment systems, but no one else is allowed to access now, including Musk himself. The order came in a trial filed by federal workers’ associations trying to stop DODE from following what they call a massive invasion of privacy.

It was not immediately clear when the democratic lawyers will fil for their trial.

Participation in James in the statement was the lawyer for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Mr President Donald Trump Tapped Musk, the world’s richest man, to shrink the size of the US government.

Democrats have criticized the technical billionaire maneuvers that include the hostile seizures of taxpayer data and the apparent closure of Government’s leading international humanitarian aid agency.

DOGE recently gained access to sensitive payment data within the Ministry of Finance after the Ministry of Finance’s functioning Deputy Secretary David Lebryk withdrew back under pressure.

“This level of access for unauthorized persons is illegal, unprecedented and unacceptable,” the lawyer said General. “DOGE has no authority to access this information that they explicitly sought to block critical payments that millions of Americans trust – payments that support health care, childcare and other important programs.”

Democratic members of Congress have expressed similar concerns that Musk, a non -elected citizen, is exercising too much power within the US government and states openly on its social media platform X that Doge will close payments to organizations.

Musk has made fun of the criticism of DOGE on X while saying it saves taxpayers millions of dollars.

DOGE -EMERGENCYSEMS SEARCHED ACCESS TO THE MINCE OF THE Ministry of Finance To prevent money from flowing Into the US Agency for International Development, according to two people who are familiar with the case. This effort undermines insurance policies that the department has provided that it was only trying to undergo the payment integrity and had “read -only access” to the system as part of an audit process.

The two people who were familiar with the case spoke to Associated Press on the condition of anonymity of fear of retaliation on Thursday.

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Associated Press -authors Fatima Hussein, Ellen Knickmeyer and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Washington.