Update:
A group of taxpayer advocates and unions filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing and retaining sensitive taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In addition to blocking DOGE’s access, the group – comprising The Centre for Taxpayer Rights, the Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communication Workers of America – seeks to get Musk’s department to delete any data it may have already gathered.
‘DOGE and its game of governmental whack-a-mole has wreaked havoc on the American system of government (perhaps a feature not a bug of its aim) and caused incredible concern for the privacy of the American public,’ the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit filed in federal court for the District of Columbia on Monday, 17 February 2025.
It is also alleged that DOGE began its infiltration into the IRS on Thursday, 13 February, when DOGE Software Engineer Gavin Kliger arrived unannounced at the IRS headquarters and was subsequently granted access to tax systems and databases on Tuesday, 18 February.
‘It is highly unusual – and perhaps unprecedented in the contemporary era – to grant political appointees access to personal taxpayer data,’ read the lawsuit. ‘Even IRS commissioners do not typically have access to all taxpayer data systems.’
The group also argued that granting access to these systems ‘violates the Tax Reform Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act’.
The IRS is host to some of America’s most sensitive information systems, containing social security numbers and information about the income and net worth, bank account details, tax liability, deductions and tax return details of individuals, businesses and non-profit organisations.
‘At every step, DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action to crucial protections for data help by the government collected on hundreds of millions of Americans,’ read the lawsuit.
The lawsuit forms the tenth case filed to prevent DOGE from accessing confidential information in federal government agencies, according to Democracy Docket.
Cape {town} Etc previously reported that 14 states have also filed a lawsuit against Musk, DOGE and Trump, alleging that Musk has been making sweeping decisions without Senate confirmation or legal authority.
Last week, DOGE was blocked from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system.
As part of its efforts to identify government inefficiencies and eliminate what it deems wasteful federal spending, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is attempting to access a broad range of US taxpayer data, raising privacy concerns within the country’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The IRS system retains the personal tax information of millions of Americans, as well as businesses and nonprofits. Two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that DOGE formally requested access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) – a critical tool used to review tax filings, issue notices and update taxpayer records.
While DOGE has not yet received access to the data as of this weekend, the publication confirmed, its efforts have sparked criticism, with both government entities and privacy experts arguing that allowing Elon Musk to access taxpayer data could be highly dangerous.
Under pressure from the White House, however, multiple reports confirmed that the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give DOGE broad access to several of the tax-agency systems, property and databases.
The operation is set to be headed by DOGE Software Engineer Gavin Kliger, who will provide engineering assistance and IT modernisation consulting while he works at the IRS for 120 days.
Arriving unannounced at the IRS headquarters on Thursday, Kliger met with the agency’s chief of taxpayer services and top enforcement official before being titled ‘senior advisor to the acting commissioner’. The agency is reportedly also preparing for layoffs as soon as this week as per Trump’s executive order.
This latest move by DOGE follows the department’s earlier attempt to gain entry to the Treasury’s payment system, which is responsible for managing trillions of dollars in government expenditures, leading to the resignation of a senior civil servant who opposed the move.
Having acquired access, DOGE will subsequently face an audit by the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General, reported AP News. The audit is set to evaluate the security controls for the federal government’s payment system, as well as review the past two years of the system’s transactions, which relates to Musk’s accusations of ‘alleged fraudulent payments’.
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Picture: @ElonMushAOC / X
