Lawsuit Filed Against Trump for Allegedly Allowing DOGE Illegal Access to Workers’ Data

Key Takeaways

• The Trump administration is being sued for allowing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff unlawful access to sensitive information about millions of government employees, violating the Privacy Act of 1974.
• Privacy advocates and labor unions argue DOGE staff illegally accessed data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), posing serious risks to worker privacy and security.
• The lawsuit seeks to halt DOGE's access, destroy illegally accessed data, and prevent further misuse, with concerns raised over vulnerabilities in federal data systems, particularly after the 2014 OPM breach.

The Trump administration allegedly allowed Elon Musk's Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to information of millions of government workers, thereby breaching federal privacy law.

The most alarming point, however, is that Elon Musk isn't even a government representative but still has so much power over the US government and is able to get access to such sensitive matters and information.

Privacy advocates and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed the lawsuit on DOGE and Office of Personal Management (OPM) on behalf of two labor unions, including a group of current and former federal employees.

The lawsuit suggests that DOGE doesn't have any lawful or legitimate access to these files, asking the US District Court in the Southern District of New York to suspend their access and to also prevent them from using the information they've already accessed.

It also insists that any exceptions to the Privacy Act, even for law enforcement purposes, shouldn't be applicable to this case.

Quite naturally, government employees are cynical about this intrusion' and suspect that Musk's staff must've already harvested their data, which, by the way, could include information of highly sensitive roles like CIA workers.

This would jeopardize the security of those individuals whose government employment isn't even supposed to be revealed.

Not the First Lawsuit for OPM or DOGE

OPM, DOGE's alleged partner in crime, is responsible for maintaining information like health records, disabilities, and background check information of several million current and former federal employees, contractors, and job applicants.

At the time of writing, it's facing another lawsuit from labor groups over an offer of deferred resignation, which promised payment that Congress had not appropriated till then.

The final verdict, however, hasn't yet been delivered, as the judge has delayed the deadline for federal workers to choose whether to accept the offer.

The White House will continue to fight these battles in court, and we expect to be vindicated. - White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

As for DOGE, besides this lawsuit, it has also gotten the Treasury Department in trouble for allowing access to its sensitive payments system.

Democratic lawmakers are struggling to slow down the illegal coup of Musk's DOGE while the lawsuits continue to be dragged from one date to another.

The Trump Administration insisted that the DOGE staffers had legal allowance to access the information. However, they failed to provide sufficient information about the clearances that gave them the right.

Bottom Line

Clearly, the Muskification of the US government hasn't been received well, and understandably so. Too much power without accountability is what DOGE currently comes across as.

Whether Musk's intentions with DOGE are genuine or if it is him trying to become more powerful than the state, only time will tell.

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