By Tom Hals and Jack Queen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of state attorneys general on Thursday sued to halt Elon Musk’s efforts to slash federal spending as head of President Donald Trump’s new government efficiency agency, escalating the legal fight over the billionaire’s influence in the White House.
The lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court filed by the attorneys general of New Mexico and 13 other states alleges Trump has given Musk “unchecked legal authority” without authorization from the U.S. Congress.
Musk’s team has swept through federal agencies since Trump, a Republican, became president last month and put the CEO of carmaker Tesla and the world’s richest person in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of a dramatic overhaul of government.
Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been hit with several privacy lawsuits over their access to government computer systems. The new lawsuit alleges Musk was illegally appointed and seeks an order barring him from taking any further government action.
“Oblivious to the threat this poses to the nation, President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities,” the states said, calling Musk an “agent of chaos” in the government.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two federal judges overseeing ongoing privacy cases against DOGE will consider on Friday whether the agency will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at U.S. health, consumer protection and labor agencies.
In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer will consider a request by Democratic state attorneys general to extend a temporary block on DOGE that he put in place on Saturday, which prevented Musk’s team from accessing Treasury systems responsible for trillions of dollars of payments.
The states allege that Musk’s team has no legal power to access the payment systems that contain sensitive personal information on millions of Americans.
The lawsuit also argued Musk and his team could disrupt federal funding for health clinics, preschools, climate initiatives and other programs, and that Trump could use the information to further his political agenda.
In Washington, U.S. District Judge John Bates will consider a request by unions to prevent the DOGE team from accessing sensitive records at the Departments of Health and Human Services, the Labor Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Most of Trump’s initiatives that have been legally challenged have been blocked by the courts, which has prompted Musk and other Trump allies to call for judges to be impeached, although the president said he would obey court orders.
Despite some initiatives being blocked in court, Trump’s administration has pushed ahead with mass firings of government workers and has sharply curtailed America’s foreign aid program. The cost-cutting appears to be focused on programs opposed by political conservatives.
(Reporting by Tom Hals and Jack Queen; editing by Nick Zieminski and Nia Williams)
