By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge clarified on Tuesday that an order restricting billionaire Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting effort from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems does not apply to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Saturday temporarily blocked Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s access to the government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments, granting a win to a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from 19 states who filed a lawsuit.
That ruling sparked outcry from Trump allies – including Musk and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – who said it blocked Bessent, who was confirmed by the Senate on January 28, from accessing the systems.
The Justice Department then asked U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan, who is overseeing the case on a permanent basis, to revoke or modify Engelmayer’s order. The government lawyers said it could be read to cover all Treasury political appointees, including Bessent.
Vargas on Tuesday kept Engelmayer’s temporary restraining order in place, but clarified that it did not apply to Bessent, other Senate-confirmed Treasury officials, or outside contractors who accessed the system before Trump’s January 20 inauguration to perform maintenance.
The judge, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, is due to hear arguments over whether to extend the restrictions on DOGE’s access at a hearing on Friday.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The White House will continue to fight these battles in court, and we expect to be vindicated.”
The states’ lawsuit said DOGE’s access to the systems could pose cybersecurity risks and disrupt federal funding for health clinics, preschools and other programs.
Musk had called Engelmayer’s ruling “absolutely insane!” in a post on his social media platform X. The billionaire said the Treasury Department and DOGE had agreed to require all outgoing government payments to include a rationale in the form of a comment and to have a categorization code.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis)
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