BALTIMORE, MD (February 7, 2025) – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop the unauthorized disclosure of Americans’ private information and sensitive data. The lawsuit asserts that the Trump administration illegally provided Elon Musk and the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s central
payment system, and therefore to Americans’ most sensitive personal information, including bank account details and Social Security numbers. This expanded access could allow Musk and his team to block federal funds to states and programs providing health care, childcare, and other critical services. With this lawsuit, the coalition of attorneys general is seeking to stop the Trump administration’s new policy that illegally grants DOGE, Musk, and others access to Americans’ confidential information and the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems.
“The president is threatening the banking system Marylanders rely on. He has given a wealthy businessman’s associates unauthorized access to tens of millions of people’s sensitive information. This puts critical benefits at risk—Social Security payments, healthcare, and federal tax returns—simply because they don’t align with his administration’s agenda,” said Attorney General Brown. “Our Office will not allow the federal government to play politics with people’s lives and livelihoods.”
Beginning February 2, 2025, the Trump administration’s Treasury Department adopted a new policy that grants “special government employees,” including Elon Musk and members of DOGE, access to its central payment system operated by the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS). This central payment system controls vital funding that millions of Americans depend on, including Social Security payments, veteran’s benefits, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and more. The payment system also controls billions of dollars that states rely on to support essential services like law enforcement, public education, and infrastructure repairs.
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Access to BFS is limited by federal law to a select group of career civil servants with the appropriate security clearances. Attorney General Brown and the coalition assert the Treasury Department’s new policy, which expands access to BFS’s payment system, 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.
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With this lawsuit, Attorney General Brown and the coalition of attorneys general are seeking an injunction preventing the Trump administration from continuing its new policy of expanded access to BFS’s payment system, as well as a declaration that the Treasury Department’s policy change is unlawful and unconstitutional.
Joining Attorney General Brown in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.