(The Center Square) – Colorado is among states that are suing the Trump administration over the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency’s access to federal payment systems that include private personal information.
The U.S. Department of Treasury reportedly gave DOGE, which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk, access to federal payment systems that include personal private information and bank account data.
A statement from the group of attorneys general, including Colorado’s Phil Weiser, said President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to grant the access and cut off federal payments.
“This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented and unacceptable,” the statement said. “DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on – payments that support health care, childcare and other essential programs.”
Colorado is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday warning that “allowing DOGE access to this information raises unprecedented risks to Americans’ private personal and financial information.”
A federal judge on Thursday restricted DOGE’s access to the Treasury data to two officials with “read-only” access, Axios reported. The judge’s order came after a group of public employee unions filed a lawsuit on Monday
