WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge Friday expressed doubt that agents from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency had the authority to access wide swaths of data at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, pushed the Justice Department to define the agents’ roles, whether DOGE was as an agency or an advisory board, and if any data was being disclosed to DOGE agents outside each agency.
Justice Department attorney Michael Gerardi struggled to provide a clear definition, suggesting that DOGE is an agency under the 1932 Economy Act, which would authorize it to “detail” or send agents to work temporarily at other agencies.
Under that definition, there is no harm from DOGE agents, temporarily employed by the Labor Department, gaining access to worker data information so long as they don’t disclose it to a third party, Gerardi said.
Aman George of Democracy Forward represents a union coalition of employees at each agency and argued that DOGE is merely an advisory board within the White House.
That status does not grant DOGE agents to demand access to all swaths of government data, nor does it empower them to cancel government contracts en masse and order the termination of agency employees, George said.
Even with the proper authorization, George said, it was paramount that the DOGE agents comply with Privacy Act requirements and other disclosure regulations considering the sensitive nature of the data.
He highlighted recent reporting by NBC News that revealed Musk approved DOGE agents to use a remote-access and file-transfer software, known as PuTTY, at the Labor Department. The technology, George said, would allow the agents to transfer vast amounts of data from the agency.
The union coalition represents employees within the agencies and at private sector organizations that rely on the agencies’ data and sued on Feb. 5 to prevent DOGE agents from gaining access to sensitive worker complaints and trade secret information on Musk’s corporate competitors. They sought a temporary restraining order to bar such access.
Bates previously denied the unions’ request for a temporary restraining order on Feb. 6 due to lack of standing on the limited record but said that he “harbored concern” about DOGE and Musk’s conduct in his brief order.
The unions, joined by Department of Health and Human Services and Consumer Protection Financial Bureau employees, brought a renewed motion for relief on Wednesday.
They detailed a “DOGE Access Policy” articulated by agency leadership that required employees not to impede DOGE agents in any way or face termination, the unions said.
At the Labor Department, the policy granted access to over 50 different information systems containing personal, identifiable information about individuals who have filed employment actions, such as the worker compensation programs and employee benefit plans, among others.
“Notably, Mr. Musk’s companies have also frequently been the subject of (or are currently) the subject of enforcement actions at DOL, including at least investigations at SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company,” the unions said. “Under normal circumstances, non-public information regarding those investigations would not be available to Mr. Musk.”
HHS employees described a similar situation beginning Feb. 5, where DOGE agents sought access to Medicare and Medicaid payment services, as well as personnel records at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.
Employees of the Consumer Protection Bureau — which Musk has targeted for dissolution, similar to the U.S. Agency for International Development — said DOGE agents gained access on Feb. 7.
Meanwhile, acting Director Russell Vought issued a stop work order and barred employees from the agency’s headquarters, leaving the DOGE agents unsupervised access to consumer complaints regarding mortgages, credit cards, and debt collection that may contain their Social Security numbers and bank account information.
Bates suggested he would be open to granting a temporary restraining order to compel any DOGE agents at federal agencies to comply with privacy regulations, much like U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly did in a parallel suit regarding Treasury data.
Bates and other federal judges at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington have struggled to tread water while considering the wave of legal challenges against Musk and Trump.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes slammed Seth Waxman, an attorney representing eight inspectors general who Trump terminated on Jan. 24, in a brief but heated hearing for a temporary restraining order.
Reyes, known for her no-frill proceedings, took issue with the delayed filing — 21 days between the termination and the lawsuit on Feb. 12 — and the request for such immediate relief.
She told Waxman to withdraw the temporary restraining order motion and confer with the government to schedule a preliminary injunction instead and warned that she had considered ordering a show cause on sanctions.
“I’m not going to do it because I’ve got other things to deal with, but this was totally unacceptable,” Reyes said.
