District Court Maintains, But Amends, Block of DOGE Access to Treasury Data
District Judge Jeannette Vargas denied President Donald Trump and the Treasury Department’s motion to dissolve a preliminary injunction (PI) against the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to sensitive Treasury data on Tuesday. The judge ruled that the PI order should be modified so that the department and department secretary cannot provide access to payment information or systems containing sensitive information unless DOGE personnel handling it have undergone specific training and vetting.
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“The Defendants’ motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction in its entirety is DENIED,” and “the preliminary injunction is modified,” said Vargas. However, “Defendants are not required to obtain a judicial determination that a particular individual has satisfied the Training, Vetting and Mitigation Procedures before such person may be granted access to Treasury Payment Systems.”
If the injunction had remained in place unchanged, Vargas said it would require the government to obtain judicial approval every time there is a change to the DOGE team, which is not optimal. But vacating the PI entirely would potentially lead to “the arbitrary and capricious conduct that the Court found likely violated the [Administrative Procedure Act].”
Vargas also said that employees Thomas Krause, Linda Whitridge, Samuel Corcos, and Todd Newnam “have satisfied the conditions to be carved out of the definition of Restricted Personnel” and will “be permitted access to Treasury Payment Systems” on the same terms as Ryan Wunderly, who was exempt from the PI in April (see 2504140036). Declarations of support attesting to the vetting and training of those employees were submitted earlier in May (see 2505020056)
Case 25-01144 began in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York when a New York-led coalition of states filed suit against the government, alleging unauthorized access to private information of Americans provided to Elon Musk and DOGE violated the Privacy Act and E-Government Act (see 2502070050).