Tom Cotton slams Obama-era judge for banning Treasury Sec from Treasury systems

Senator Tom Cotton condemned a ruling by an Obama-era judge that blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing federal Treasury systems, calling the decision “outrageous.”

Cotton posted on X, “Outrageous. Obama Judge Paul Engelmayer didn’t just bar @elonmusk and @doge from Treasury systems, he barred the Secretary of the Treasury himself. Without citing a single law or even allowing Trump admin to appear in court! This outlaw should be reversed immediately and Engelmayer should be forbidden by higher courts from ever hearing another case against the Trump admin.”

On Saturday, Engelmayer issued an order temporarily halting DOGE’s access to the Treasury’s federal payment system after New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other Democrat state attorneys general sued the Trump administration. The lawsuit came in response to climate change program funds being paused.

The judge ordered that Musk’s team must “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” He argued that states are likely to succeed in legal claims that the Trump administration exceeded its authority by allowing DOGE access to the federal payment system.

Engelmayer further stated that states faced irreparable harm without court intervention, citing “the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”

James praised the ruling, posting on X, “This morning, we won a court order blocking Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, from accessing Americans’ private data. Musk and his DOGE employees must destroy all records they've obtained. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: no one is above the law.”

DOGE had been granted access to the Treasury payment system as part of its initiative, ordered by President Trump, to identify inefficiency and wasteful spending within the federal government. The Treasury Department previously clarified that DOGE representatives were only allowed to view content and could not modify transactions.

Musk has alleged that DOGE uncovered alarming mismanagement within the Treasury, claiming that payment approval officers had been instructed  “always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.” Musk said on X, “They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once."