DOGE Member Given Treasury Data Access in Partial Reversal (1)

A new member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can access payment system data at the US Department of Treasury, a federal judge ruled Friday, finding he was properly trained on privacy rules.

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in the US District for the Southern District of New York partially dissolved a preliminary injunction granted earlier to a coalition of state attorneys general to allow Ryan Wunderly, Special Advisor for Information Technology and Modernization within the Treasury DOGE Team, access to Bureau of Fiscal Services payment system.

“The Government’s extensive declarations make clear that Wunderly has undergone the same vetting and security clearance process that applies to any other Treasury Department employee provided with access to BFS payment systems,” and Wunderly has completed all the training possible without system access, Vargas said.

It’s not reasonable to stall Wunderly’s clearance until the agency reviews his pending financial disclosure report, Vargas said. Wunderly should be granted access to treasury systems as long as he first submits the financial report and completes hands-on training, she said.

Training DOGE

A group of mostly Democratic-controlled states sued the Trump administration over DOGE’s access to sensitive data, including Social Security and bank account numbers. They also cited concern that the policy would allow DOGE members to block states from receiving federal funds to which they’re legally entitled.

Vargas in February granted the states a preliminary injunction, pausing access to the Treasury systems until DOGE showed it had vetted and trained its members to reduce the risk of a security breach.

Wunderly took the place of Marko Elez, who violated Treasury Department policies after sending a spreadsheet with personal information to two other Trump administration members. Wunderly was briefed on Elez’s violations, according to court filings.

Elez resigned from the Treasury after racist social media posts surfaced in February, but he was rehired later at the Social Security Administration.

“Many of the issues that the Court identified with respect to the Treasury Department’s original mitigation measures occurred because of their hasty implementation and gaps in training,” Vargas said. “For example, Elez was erroneously provided with read/write access to one of the BFS databases... There was also internal confusion as to whether or not he was provided access to a separate database.”

The federal government has shown enough of an effort to bolster security concerns and train staff since then, Vargas said.

She also denied the AGs’ motion to reconsider parts of her preliminary injunction order, finding the states unlikely to succeed on Privacy Act and E-Government Act claims.

Those federal laws don’t empower states to act to protect data in federal records, or the integrity of those records, Vargas said.

The case is State of New York v. Trump, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-01144, 4/11/25.