Attorney General Phil Weiser joins multistate coalition in suing to stop Elon Musk and DOGE’s attacks on Americans info and data

Feb. 7, 2025 (DENVER)—Attorney General Phil Weiser today joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit (PDF download) against the Trump administration to stop the unauthorized disclosure of Americans’ private information and sensitive data.

The lawsuit asserts that the administration illegally provided Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system, and therefore to Americans’ most sensitive personal information, including bank account details and Social Security numbers. This expanded access could allow Musk and his team to block federal funds to states and programs providing health care, childcare, and other critical services.

“Coloradans expect their federal government to take appropriate steps to protect their private information and for the executive branch to follow the law,” Weiser said. “The sharing of this sensitive information, reportedly without safeguards on who is receiving access or how they are using this information, risks Coloradans’ privacy, threatens to undermine critical governmental programs, and is taking place without any legal justification. When Coloradans are threatened by illegal actions such as this one, my duty as Attorney General is to take action and require the federal government to act lawfully and appropriately.”

Beginning February 2, the U.S. Treasury Department adopted a new policy that grants “special government employees,” including Elon Musk and members of DOGE, access to its central payment system operated by the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS). This central payment system controls vital funding that millions of Americans depend on, including Social Security payments, veteran’s benefits, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and more. The payment system also controls billions of dollars that states rely on to support essential services like law enforcement, public education, and infrastructure.

Access to BFS is limited by federal law to a select group of career civil servants with the appropriate security clearances. Weiser and the coalition assert the Treasury Department’s new policy violates the law, jeopardizes Americans’ most sensitive personal information, and would allow Elon Musk and other unauthorized political appointees to access a system that could permit them to freeze federal funds with the click of a button in violation of the Constitution.

With this lawsuit, Weiser and the coalition of attorneys general are seeking an injunction preventing the Trump administration from continuing its new policy of expanded access to BFS’s payment system, as well as a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful and unconstitutional.

Joining Weiser in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

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Media Contact:
Lawrence Pacheco
Chief Communications Officer
(720) 508-6553 office | (720) 245-4689 cell
lawrence.pacheco@coag.gov