Nevada AG joins lawsuit over DOGE access to ‘personal private information’
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford joined a lawsuit with a coalition of 19 state attorneys general Friday after Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency staffers received “access to American’s personal private information,” from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The lawsuit claims the Trump administration illegally provided Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system, which has important information such as bank account details and Social Security payments, according to Ford.
“The negative consequences are obvious and, as Attorney General, I will protect Nevadans from this unlawful act by halting this policy in court,” he said in a Friday statement.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Musk gained access to the U.S. Treasury payment system, which is responsible for 1 billion payments per year totalling $5 trillion. The system contains sensitive information involving Social Security payments and bank accounts.
In a joint statement, the coalition said the level of access by DOGE staffers and Musk was “unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable.”
“DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on — payments that support health care, childcare, and other essential programs,” the coalition said in the statement.
The statement also claimed President Donald Trump “does not have the power to give away (American’s) private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress.”
In addition to Social Security information, the payment system also includes veterans’ benefits and Medicare and Medicaid payments, according to the Nevada attorney general’s office. Access to the system is limited by federal law to a select group of civil servants with security clearances, according to the attorney general’s office.
The lawsuit asserts 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.”
Joining in the lawsuit regarding DOGE are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, according to the attorney general’s office.
Ford has signed onto multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration in the past month, including one challenging Trump’s executive order that called upon federal agencies to not recognize the citizenship of a newborn born to a parent who is not a permanent resident or U.S. citizen, and a lawsuit against the administration’s attempt to freeze federal grants and loans last month.
Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.
Jessica Hill contributed to this report.
A previous version of this story misstated the date the lawsuit was filed.
