State AGs: Prosecute DOGE for Illegal Data Breach

Since the inauguration, Elon Musk and his DOGE team of college-aged lackeys have been entering government agencies across Washington, D.C., removing hundreds of thousands of experienced career employees and gaining access to each agency’s highly sensitive data troves. They have since taken control of data systems at the Treasury Department, USAID, Department of Labor, Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, and NOAA to name a few, and have also been tasked with upgrading the the air traffic control system for the FAA despite having zero experience with these systems. Not only have they now gained access to the private personal information of millions of Americans - including student loan data, health records, financial accounts, and social security numbers - there are also reports that they’ve been able to make undetectable changes to the codebase.

Legal experts have sounded the alarm about this large scale data breach. The Privacy Act of 1974 prevents federal agencies from disclosing an individual’s private information from government records without their direct written consent; the DOGE team’s actions are in direct violation of this federal law. Federal agencies are also required to safeguard data from third parties or unauthorized persons. However, Musk’s unauthorized and unregulated DOGE team has flouted cybersecurity protocols by using unsecured private email addresses, connecting the data systems to a commercial server, and feeding the sensitive federal data into AI software.

While lawsuits have been filed by federal labor unions, and a federal judge has restricted DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s secure payment systems, this order is temporary, limited to the Treasury Department, and still allows for two of DOGE’s team members to have “read only” access to the data. More must be done. New York state Attorney General Letitia James is forming a coalition of attorneys general to sue the Trump administration over DOGE. Demand your state’s Attorney General join this effort to hold Musk accountable for this unprecedented illegal data breach and theft of our private information.

Current states signed onto the lawsuit: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont.