A federal judge temporarily restricted members of the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system just a day before a DOGE employee, Marko Elez, linked to controversial social media posts resigned.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued the order on Wednesday after three union organizations—the Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union—filed a bombshell lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They accused him of unlawfully sharing their members' information with Elon Musk's cost-cutting team. Kollar-Kotelly restricted access to the payment records system to just two DOGE employees—one of whom resigned on Thursday—and Treasury officials.
More Pressure on DOGE
The judge ruled that the two DOGE employees, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, should be given "read-only" access to payment records as part of their mission to reduce waste and fraud while modernizing federal IT systems.
Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group Inc., and Elez, an engineer who has worked with Musk at SpaceX and X, were designated as "special government employees" by the judge.
According to Bloomberg News, both Krause and Elez have offices at the Treasury, agency email addresses, and clearance to access unclassified Treasury information.
The temporary order will prevent DOGE from altering the payment records system or sharing data related to the trillions of dollars processed by the Treasury Department each year.
This came as Elez resigned suddenly from DOGE on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal linked him to racist posts on X.
The 25-year-old engineer allegedly expressed support for a "eugenic immigration policy" in tweets made just weeks before President Donald Trump's inauguration and voiced disdain for people from India.
"Normalize Indian hate," read an X post from the account linked to Elez, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Employee's Links to racism Exposed
The outlet traced the X account @nullllptr to Elez after discovering it had previously used the handle @marko_elez and identified itself as a SpaceX employee. One post allegedly read, "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."
The account also expressed views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, with a message reading, "I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth."
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Elez had resigned from his position.
Elez earned a computer science degree from Rutgers University before joining Musk's SpaceX, Starlink, and X, where he mainly focused on AI.
Musk has faced backlash for selecting a handpicked team of young, college-aged men to assist him in purging federal agencies and eliminating waste.
This week, six men between the ages of 19 and 25 were publicly named as DOGE employees.
At just 19, Edward Coristine is the youngest of the group tackling corporate America and established government institutions.
According to WIRED, he has been labeled an "expert" in his field, although details about his specific role remain unclear.
Akash Bobba, 21, Ethan Shaotran, 22, and Luke Farritor, 23, alongside Coristine, have reportedly been granted A-suite level clearance for their work, giving them access to the agency's top floor and all its physical spaces and IT systems.
