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Obama Judge Blocks DOGE From Social Security Records; Musk Team Deletes 'Vampires'
US District Judge Ellen Hollander of Maryland also ordered DOGE to delete any personally identifiable data they may possess. The ruling come after labor unions and retirees asked for an emergency order limiting DOGE access to the agency and its vast troves of personal data, AP reports.
"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," wrote Hollander, an Obama appointee.
The order still allows DOGE to access 'redacted or anonymized data and records of SSA.'
According to the Trump administration, DOGE has a 10-person team of federal employees investigating the Social Security Administration, seven of whom have been granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable information. The government has argued that DOGE access doesn't significantly deviate from normal practices inside the agency whereby employees can search databases.
Established via executive order on January 20, 2025, DOGE aims to cut federal spending, reduce the size of the federal workforce, and modernize government technology.
In mid-February, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, resigned after a standoff with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over access to sensitive government records.
Today's ruling follows a string of judicial DOGE-blocking - as their access to records across the federal government have prompted disputes with senior officials at various agencies. Perhaps most prominently, the highest-ranking civil servant at the US Treasury Department quit after similarly refusing to grant Musk's team access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which manages over $5 trillion in annual payments.
On February 8, 2025, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York blocked DOGE from Treasury records after 19 states, led by NY AG Letitia James, sued over cybersecurity threats. Subsequent rulings, like Judge Deborah Boardman's February 24 TRO on Education and OPM data, reinforced limits on DOGE's reach. These cases established that DOGE's "need-to-know" basis for PII access was unproven.
The same day that King quit, Musk posted what he says could be the 'biggest fraud in US history' in which millions of 'people' over the age of 100 are collecting payments.