Federal employees have accused Elon Musk of violating the privacy of people who have paid federal income tax or received a tax refund.
The lawsuit, which names Musk but was filed Monday against Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, specifically alleges that Bessent granted Musk, a special government employee heading President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting effort called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), unlawful access to the system the federal government uses to make and receive payments.
Bessent and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees, said Bessent’s decision grants Musk “unfettered access to the personal and financial information of Americans.”
The central entity in question is the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), part of the Department of the Treasury. The bureau acts as the federal government’s checking account and payment rails, and it collects and disburses trillions of dollars each year in the form of tax debts and refunds, Social Security payments, federal employees’ salaries and other transactions to which the federal government is a party.
In doing so, the lawsuit alleges, Bessent violated the Privacy Act of 1974 by granting Musk and DOGE-affiliated individuals access to BFS records without proper notice.
Bessent’s decision “means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords.”
Additionally, because Bessent and Musk have acted in secrecy, “individuals will not have even basic information about what personal or financial information that Defendants are sharing with outside parties or how their information is being used,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit highlights that some of the records the bureau maintains include the personal information of “individuals who have authorized payments to the federal government,” including their name, date of birth, Social Security number, home address, telephone number, driver’s license number and bank account information.
It also highlights that all of the plaintiffs suing Bessent have a case against him because they “pay federal income taxes or receive refunds,” reaffirming that anyone who has paid taxes or received a refund is implicated in the case.
While the lawsuit does not describe Musk’s access to BFS as a “data breach,” it does call it an “intrusion” of a “massive and unprecedented” scale, and Richard Fiesta, the head of one of the groups suing Bessent, called it “unlawful theft of our data.”
“Seniors are already the most vulnerable Americans to fraud and scams, with FBI data showing losses of $3.4 billion in 2023 alone,” said Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, an advocacy organization for retirees, in
The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a court that has historically been among the most willing in the country to block Trump and his administration from certain actions, to declare Bessent’s actions unlawful and halt the disclosure of personal information to DOGE-affiliated individuals.
Those emails, the lawsuit alleges, came from a server that did not send the emails securely due to their rapid deployment.
“Standard email is not encrypted, and it is common practice among hackers— including hackers affiliated with hostile foreign services—to begin attempting to access a new U.S. Government device as soon as they learn of its deployment,” the lawsuit said.
If you have information about the impact of DOGE on the security of federal networks or the privacy of people in the U.S., message the reporter on Signal at @carterpape.58.