FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – A federal court has granted a motion
filed by a coalition of attorneys general, including Attorney General
Brown, for a preliminary injunction to stop Elon Musk and employees of
his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) from having
unauthorized access to Americans’ private information:
“Giving
a private citizen unauthorized access to our nation’s central banking
system endangers sensitive information that the State relies on in
providing crucial services for Marylanders,” said Attorney General Brown.
“I am happy that this preliminary injunction is in place so that we can
put a stop to this reckless risk to our State and the people it
serves.”
On February 7, Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in filing a lawsuit
against the Trump administration to stop the unauthorized access to
Americans’ private information. The lawsuit asserts that the Trump
administration illegally provided Elon Musk and DOGE unauthorized access
to the Treasury Department’s central payment system, and therefore to
individual Americans’ and states’ sensitive information, including
social security numbers and bank account information.
On
the morning of February 8, a federal judge in the Southern District of
New York granted the coalition’s motion for a temporary restraining
order (TRO) blocking the Trump administration from granting DOGE access
to Americans’ most sensitive personal information and ordering them to
immediately destroy any and all copies of records they had already
obtained.
On Friday, February 22, Judge Jeannette Vargas of the Southern District of New York granted the coalition’s motion for a preliminary injunction,
barring the government from allowing unauthorized government employees
like Elon Musk and DOGE to access the Treasury’s central payment system
while the coalition’s lawsuit proceeds.
Joining
Attorney General Brown in this lawsuit are the attorneys general of
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‛i, Illinois,
Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
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