Elon Musk seems to have access to all of your private government data you're cool with that right well backed by President Trump Elon Musk has been given the keys to the kingdom almost literally a musk and a hodg Podge group of Engineers some as young as 19 successfully secured access to sensitive government databases and the treasury Department's payment system through an unprecedented series of bureaucratic Maneuvers musk and his team seem to be operating in secrecy with little to no oversight and musk seems to have access to sensitive data about seemingly every American so everyone has
been asking whether it's legal for Elon Musk to have this much power and this much data and the answer may surprise and disturb you the new treasury secretary Scott bassant granted musk and his Department of government efficiency team access to the federal payment system which processes over $5 trillion annually in Social Security Medicare and tax refunds but people who work for musket SpaceX and Twitter are now government employees with direct access to all this information for example a recent report by wired revealed that Marco ell as a 25-year-old engineer has direct access to the US
Treasury Department's payment automation manager Pam and the secure payment system the SPs these systems are responsible for managing a significant portion of government dispersements including Social Security Medicare benefits Federal salaries government contracts payments and tax refunds Ellis's access reportedly includes administrator level privileges allowing him to read and write code Within These critical systems and ell's reportedly had the ability to make those changes without testing them first treasury employees tried to fight back against what they believe to be illegal orders acor treasury secretary David Leck resigned on January 31st 2025 following a dispute with musk allies
Leber had served in various capacities within the treasury Department for several decades and was appointed as the fiscal assistant secretary in 2014 CNN reported that bassant threatened LEC with legal consequences if he did not Grant Doge the ability to stop payments and mus control of the treasury includes the Bureau of the fiscal service which quote handles more than 1 billion Financial transactions annually for the US government both outgoing grants and payments and incoming tax receipts while serving as the largest cash management operation in the world BFS collects personal and financial information about the people and
businesses on the other side of the transactions including name Social Security numbers birth dates birthplaces home addresses and telephone numbers email addresses and bank account information what could musk do with all of that data oh nothing just sell it use it for blackmail delete it alter it make it all public or feed it into some giant non-secure AI it really could be all that bad and that's just the beginning musk has already shared data with Outsiders for example mus posted about his fines on Twitter he revealed specific Federal payments to Lutheran Social Services organizations musk
called these payments illegal they are not illegal the BFS is also responsible for treasury bond interest payments and apparently musk and his team have readright control of BFS systems which were coded decades before they were born so is any of this legal well probably not here are all the laws that musk potentially has broken now the issue is broader than whether alz or the other Doge team members could change code federal agencies have improperly stopped sending money Congress lawfully allocated and as we've covered recently and we'll probably cover again in Greater detail most of it
is flatly illegal the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in train versus New York that when Congress directs the money to be spent the president is obligated to do it otherwise congress's laws that is the laws of this country would be merely advisory to the president and we kind of fought a war to prevent that and fundamentally the president refusing to spend money as Congress directed violates the Appropriations Clause as well as a take care Clause of the Constitution and failing to spend congressionally required funds also violates the empowerment Control Act of 1974 and spending funds that
have not been appropriated or making obligations that exceed agency right regulations violate the anti-deficiency act now there are a lot of people who think the government is too large and that it should scale back its spending that is a totally valid point of view but what is not legitimate is the executive unilaterally cutting spending required by law in violation of the Constitution and numerous other federal laws and that is what's happening here it is incredibly illegal moving fast and breaking things doesn't work when you are messing with systems that are again required by law and
it's an especially bad sign when the same party controls all three branches of government not in the sense of making policy that some people won't like but in the sense that Trump could accomplish all of these things by simply asking Congress to pass laws to that effect Congress could pass a law tomorrow to delete usaid the cfpb or the Department of Education but even though Republicans control both houses of Congress many if not most of these Cuts would likely fail to pass and president Trump and Elon Musk seek to circumvent the proper process entirely while
at the same time they vilify the judges who are enjoining their plainly illegal acts in preserving the status quo but that's probably just the beginning of the illegal acts what about all the data that they're accessing and changing let's start with the Privacy Act of 1974 under this law no one can disclose a private record unless quote the individual to whom a record pertains consense unless there is an exception these exceptions would be if officers and employees of the Agency quote have a need for the record in the performance of their duties or if there
is a routine use stipulated in the sorn now these exceptions don't appear to apply in this case and musk's treasury break-in also arguably violates the Internal Revenue code section 6103 which protects taxpayer information from unauthorized access or disclosure the BFS processes tax returns and other IRS related payments and by giving Doge operatives access to these systems IRS records including individual tax return data may have been improperly exposed section 6103 prohibits federal employees and third parties from accessing or disclosing taxpayer return information unless specifically authorized this section of the law was strengthened after Richard Nixon misus
tax records to Target political opponents now even high-ranking officials including the president have limited access to tax return data at least in theory now willful unauthorized access or disclosure of tax return information is a felony under IRC 7213 punishable by fines and imprisonment Additionally the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act makes it a crime to intentionally access a federal computer system without authorization or exceed authorization access to obtain sensitive information 18 USC 1030 covers the theft or misuse of government data and we already know that musk has shared specific Federal payment records which could be evidence
of unauthorized disclosure of protected data under that same section there's intentional damage to a protected computer which punishes unauthorized access for personal or political gain those sections might apply if Doge access treasury data for political targeting corporate advantage or to manipulate federal spending the cfaa violations carry severe consequences including fines and up to 10 years in prison for serious offenses there's also the Fair Credit Reporting Act which limits access to Credit Data that includes Social Security numbers to those who have a permissable purpose under the law and then the health insurance portability and accountability act
known as Hippa protects the privacy of health information that identifies an individual and restricts Healthcare organizations from disclosing such information to others without the patient's consent and obviously it's illegal to disclose someone's Social Security number without their consent the identity theft and assumption deterrence act 18 USC 1028 also applies this law makes it a federal crime to knowingly and intentionally use someone's Social Security number to commit identity theft or fraud penalties for identity theft can include fines and imprisonment up to 15 years or both and there's also the social security number protection act of 2010
which imposes restrictions on the use of social security numbers by businesses and entities and many states have their own laws and provide additional protection for Social Security numbers including restrictions on how Social Security numbers can be used shared and stored but it seems like Do's access to the US Treasury means it must cone all federal dispersements including those from the Department of Veterans Affairs this system contains sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and VA benefit details of numerous veterans 38 USC 571 protects veterans records held by the VA including benefits medical history and personal
identifiers and VA records cannot be shared without the veterans consent but musk's actions also pose massive foreign intellig and Espionage risks past government breaches including the 2013 OPM hack by Chinese operatives highlight how dangerous it is when government data is not properly secured and the irony of all this is that just 6 weeks ago the US government was sounding the alarm about China using Tik Tok to steal your private information and now the government is handing over private information to Elon Musk personally now obviously you're going to try and shut down the entire government you'll
probably want a good lawyer but if you want a great lawyer let my Law Firm the eagle team help if you've gotten a car crash if you've suffered a data breach especially if you got one of those data breach letters saying that your information might have been leaked or dealing with a workers comp or social security issue we can represent you or help find you the right attorney it's so important to talk to a lawyer right away so you can maximize your recovery and by the way we don't get paid unless you do so there's
nothing up front so click on the link in the description or call the phone number that's on screen for a free consultation with my team because you don't just need a legal team you need the eagal team but unfortunately it's a big problem when the alarm is coming from inside the house so many of these laws require enforcement by the executive and if the executive grants Authority or just refuses to prosecute violations there's not a lot that can be done which leaves a limited number of instances when private citizens can sue on their own behalf
now citizens can sue the government if their privacy rights are violated under certain privacy acts and that's already started to happen on February 3rd the alliance for retired Americans the aflci and the service employees International Union filed lawsuits against bassant the department of the treasury and the BFS the plaintiff SE declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the unlawful disclosure of personal and financial information to Elon Musk and members of Doge the plaintiffs argued that millions of individuals including retirees taxpayers federal employees and contractors are affected by this unprecedented access compromising their sensitive data without their
consent the federal employees did not consent to these disclosures nor I assume did anyone who was watching this video the plaintiff say that when bassant gave Doge full access to the bureau's records and computer systems he violated the Privacy Act of 1974's public notice requirements and additionally the complaint alleges that when the treasury makes a change of this magnitude under the administrative procedures act it must give a system of Records notice or orn in the Federal Register for 30 days while allowing public comment before taking any action and on February 6th a federal judge granted
plaintiffs a preliminary injunction limiting the access of Doge employees to the treasury now the order is a mixed bag it does not give musk the ability to review or change treasury data which is good but this may not matter since musk has had access to the data for at least two weeks and the judge's order permits special government employee Marco alz to have readon access to the treasury systems but a wired report on February 7th asserted that the Department of Justice lied about whether alz had right access or not and following that report alz resigned
from Doge after his social media posts were discovered he apparently advocated for eugenics and for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act elz tweeted quote normalized Indian hate and 99% of Indian h-1bs will be replaced by slightly smarter llms they're going back don't worry guys and quote you couldn't pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity but don't worry musk conducted a poll on Twitter about whether alz should return and what a surprise the incel Brigade on Twitter thinks that he should return vice president J Vance who is married to an indian-american and president Trump
also spoke out on his behalf but it looks like the restrictions will remain in place while the lawsuit proceeds but again this is a mixed bag several reporters have claimed that Doge employees including alz have already made extensive changes to the payment systems codebase with limited oversight but the judge's order put a stop to that and hopefully Doge employees will actually follow the order yeah you can bet that you're going to hear me say hopefully they follow the court order a lot in the coming years yeah can we just make up a graphic that says
hopefully they follow the court order cuz we're going to do that a lot additionally secretary bassant has now appointed silicon Valley's Tom Krauss as his assistant so apparently Krauss is one of musk's top lieutenants and he now has access to the payment system as well and to summarize Krauss told treasury career staff to stop payments to usaid the staffer resisted saying it was illegal and the Stafford was ousted Krauss is now head of payments at treasury of course the question on everyone's Minds is who would prosecute Elon Musk and his operatives for disclosing taxpayer information
now traditionally the FBI and the Department of Justice would investigate and prosecute people who break the law but the Department of Justice is now stacked with MAA lawyers like Ed Martin who threaten to prosecute anyone who refused to give musk and his men the access they demanded Ed marttin is the current US attorney for the District of Columbia and he's also the guy that dismissed charges against one of the January 6 insurrectionists who he happened to be currently representing in private practice you just can't make this up adding to our nightmares that Trump is trying
to lay off over 5,000 of the FBI's 13,700 agents basically half of the FBI and is poised to install cash Patel as head of the FBI the states do have a role to play in enforcing the law and a coalition of 19 Democratic states Attorneys General have filed a lawsuit to prevent Doge from accessing Federal Payment Systems containing sensitive personal information and there the plaintiffs argue that granting Doge access to sensitive treasury Payment Systems is arbitrary and capricious lacks proper justification and did not follow required procedures thereby violating the administrative procedure act the states contend
that Doge's access to treasury records could interfere with funding already appropriated by Congress exceeding the treasury Department statutory Authority and violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers they assert that Trump's actions violate the take care Clause of the Constitution and the state's plaintiffs are also concerned that doa's access poses significant cybercity risks that may compromise sensitive personal information and the Integrity of the federal payment system and related to that a federal judge has temporarily block Doge from accessing the treasury's payment system the judge said quote the Court's firm assessment is that for the reason
stated by the states they will face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief this is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that these systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking the Court's further assessment is that again for the reasons given by the states the states have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims with the state statutory claims presenting as particularly strong the Court's further assessment is that the balance of the equities
for the reason stated by the states favors the entry of emergency relief and the judge has now granted the pl of States motion for enforcement of a temporary restraining order now mind you a trro is ultra temporary he just preserving the status quo so so the court can learn more about the situation and the parties can provide further briefing but the court issued the T to prohibit the defendants from implementing a broad categorical freeze on federal spending the court agreed with plaintiffs that the Trump Administration is not complying with the order and the judge emphasized
that the government must promptly comply with court order citing Manis versus Myers the Supreme Court which says quote persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect the court found that the defendants had notice of the trro that the order was clear and unambiguous and that there were no impediments to compliance despite this evidence presented by the plaintiff States indicated that the defendants continued to freeze federal funds and refused to resume dispersement of appropriated funds which violated the trro
the Trump Administration argued that the friezes were intended to prevent fraud however the court noted that these freezes resulted from a broad categorical order rather than a specific findings of potential fraud the court reiterated that such sweeping freezes are likely unconstitutional and cause for irreparable harm thus violating the trro so what is the Trump Administration have to do now well quote immediately restore Frozen funding during the pendency of the trro until the court hears and decides the preliminary injunction request immediately end any federal funding pause during the pendency of the trro immediately take every step
necessary to effectuate the TR including clearing any administrative operational or technical hurdles to implementation comply with a plain text of TR not to pause any funds based on pronouncements pausing funding incorporated into the OM directive like section 7A of the unleashing executive order and the OM unleashing guidance immediately restore withheld funds including those federal funds appropriated in the inflation reduction Act and the infrastructure Improvement and jobs act and resume the funding of institutes and other agencies of the defendants for example the National Institute for health that are included in the scope of the Court's trro
now so far the Trump Administration has been at least telling the court that they are complying or attempting to comply with various orders it'll be another issue entirely if they just outright ignore orders like musk and Trump have been saying that they will do so it's going to be important to watch what happens in the wake of this particular trro now when the court stopped Elon Musk from accessing US Treasury data almost 400 sources reported on it with a vast majority of them coming from the center and the left but when you examine the headlines
you start to see some very different frames emerge that shape how readers interpret and understand the events that are unfolding on the right headlines emphasize mus claims that he found $50 billion worth of fraud at the treasury Department implying these claims correlate to the judge's ruling and implying that Elon Musk actually did find fraud and headlines from the right also point to small legal ambiguities in the judge's ruling that could lead to it being overturned story angle largely absent from headlines on the left in Center sources who mainly focus on the risks of Elon Musk
having unfettered access to sensitive and critical data now the headlines you read first have immense power to shape how you understand the news and that's why I like to see the news from as many angles as possible which I can do with the help of today's sponsor ground news ground news is a website and app developed by a former NASA engineer on a mission to give readers an easy data driven objective way to read the news and right now they're offering legal eagle viewers 40% off their unlimited access Vantage subscription you can scan the QR
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