MINNEAPOLIS — A lawsuit filed by 14 attorneys general on Thursday challenges the authority of Elon Musk, a billionaire and his Department of Government Efficiency in accessing sensitive government data.
The lawsuit, filed before a federal court in Washington, D.C., claims that President Trump violated Constitutional provisions regarding appointments by creating a federal agency without the approval of Congress.
Before he left, Mr. Trump asked DOGE to make recommendations to reduce federal spending. Vivek and Musk, both billionaires, said they wanted to trim about $500 billion of annual expenditures.
Musk’s team scoured agencies, examining computer systems and budgets, looking for waste, fraud, and abuse. lawsuits were filed against Mr. Trump, DOGE, and others.
According to the latest lawsuit, Musk “unraveled federal organizations, accessed sensitive information, and caused widespread disturbance for state and federal employees and the American public.” The lawsuit goes on to state that DOGE “endangers public trust and undermines cybersecurity.”
New Mexico’s Department of Justice leads the lawsuit, with Arizona and Michigan serving as co-leads. The lawsuit was also joined by attorneys general from California (including Connecticut), Hawaii, Maryland and Massachusetts), Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon. Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington.
The petitioners asked the court to order Musk, to show how “any data obtained by unlawful agency access” was used, to destroy “such unauthorized access in his or DOGE’s possession,” and to bar Musk and DOGE, from ordering any changes to the disbursement and use of public funds, cancelling government contracts, and taking steps to dissolve agencies.
Musk said on Thursday that the U.S. should ” remove entire agencies from the federal government” as part of its push to drastically cut spending and restructure priorities.
Democratic Attorneys General say Musk’s strategy is raising serious concerns with their constituents regarding the handling of sensitive data at agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and IRS.
Donald Trump appears to believe that a narrow victory in the election makes him a king. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Attorney General, said that Trump could not be further wrong. Musk is using this unconstitutional appointment, which was made by Trump without Senate confirmation or vetting, to try and cut the federal budget to the bone.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said Mr. Trump is demonstrating “weakness” in deploying Musk rather than advancing his agenda through a Republican-controlled Congress.
Torrez stated that “Moving fast and breaking things might work for a tech firm in Silicon Valley.” “It is not constitutional and it is bad governance.”
The lawsuit is seeking a court decision declaring Musk’s action unconstitutional, and to invalidate his previous actions.
A federal judge in New York blocked DOGE temporarily from accessing Treasury Department Records that contained sensitive personal data, such as Social Security numbers and bank account number for millions of Americans. The preliminary injunction was issued by U.S. district judge Paul A. Engelmayer after 19 Democratic Attorneys General sued Mr. Trump.
According to the group, a lawsuit filed by a law firm representing public interests called National Security Counselors last month accused DOGE operating as a federal Advisory Committee, violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which regulates functions and transparency for federal advisory groups.
A coalition of veterans, public health practitioners, teachers, and other groups filed a lawsuit against DOGE citing FACA, and asked a court to stop DOGE’s operations until it complies.
