19 states sue Trump, Treasury to halt DOGE access

New York leads the suit in Manhattan federal court alleging highly sensitive data is at risk.

By Josh Gerstein and Emily Ngo

NEW YORK — Democratic state attorneys general continued their legal resistance to President Donald Trump’s early policies Friday, filing a new lawsuit accusing Trump and the Treasury Department of violating federal law by granting Elon Musk’s aides access to a sensitive federal payments database.

Coalitions of states have also challenged the president’s orders to end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding — both now halted by courts.

The newest suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that granting access to the staffers from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency puts at risk billions of dollars in grants, health insurance payments and tax refunds that the states or their residents receive each year. The states also allege that DOGE’s access increases the possibilities that confidential information about recipients of the payments could be exposed publicly.

“Musk and DOGE have no authority to access Americans’ private information and some of our country’s most sensitive data,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the complaint. “I am taking action to keep our information secure.”

The lawsuit seeks to bar “political appointees, special government employees, and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department” from accessing payment data and that any such individuals who’ve been granted that access be required to return the information.

It’s unclear how many DOGE members currently have access to the payment data at the moment.

Here Are All The Major Lawsuits Against Trump And Musk—As Judge Cuts Off DOGE’s Treasury Access

Alison Durkee Forbes Staff

A New York judge has temporarily barred Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing a sensitive Treasury payment system, after over a dozen Democratic states sued late Friday—the latest in a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight President Donald Trump and cost-cutting czar Musk in court.

Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled political appointees and “special government employees”—like members of Musk’s team—must be cut of from access from the Treasury’s systems until another New York-based judge can rule on the issue next week.

Engelmeyer’s ruling came after a group of 19 Democratic state attorneys general sued Trump over DOGE’s Treasury access, arguing the move put personal information at risk, exceeded Treasury’s legal authority and could lead to DOGE unconstitutionally blocking spending that’s already been approved by Congress (a court order in a separate lawsuit said only two DOGE staffers can have read-only access).

The biggest scandal of Trump 2.0 is no scandal at all on MAGA media

Story by Brian Stelter, CNN

The revelation that President Trump’s aides endangered national security by chatting about a military strike in a Signal chat that included a journalist is embarrassing for everyone involved – which is why it’s a big test of MAGA media’s power to deny, dismiss and deflect.

The president’s favorite media outlets are mostly downplaying the story and deriding the reporter who was invited to the group chat, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. On X, Elon Musk and his acolytes are cracking jokes about the scandal. And some pro-Trump outlets are trying to ignore it altogether.

It’s all reminiscent of Trump’s first term, when real news stories were rejected by right-wing opinion outlets time and time again. And as we learned back then, the president’s media consumption has a huge impact on the personnel and policy decisions he makes.

So far, the advice he’s getting from his Fox News friends is to weather the current storm.

Many pro-Trump media figures are taking their cues from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who sounded like he reverted to his former role as Fox host when he blasted Goldberg as a “discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes.”

Hegseth likely used the word “hoax” strategically since it viscerally appeals to Trump. The president has a long history of trying to disarm damaging stories by claiming they are “hoaxes,” regardless of reality. The word has become a signal to Trump fans to tune out distressing stories.

Social Security Admin Canceled Maine Contracts As Political Revenge For Trump

Story by Nicole Lafond

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, obtained private emails that show the acting commissioner of Social Security purposely canceled contracts the Social Security Administration holds with the state of Maine as some sort of political payback against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.

Connolly outlined the correspondence in a letter, which appears to have been originally obtained by HuffPost. The emails reportedly show that acting commissioner Leland Dudek asked Social Security staff to provide him with information on what contracts the state of Maine holds with the SSA. He made the request about one week after President Trump got into a public fight with Mills over his at the time new executive order banning trans women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Social Security staff reportedly told Dudek that Maine, like all states, has a contract with the Social Security Administration that allows infants to be assigned Social Security numbers at birth. The contract also aides in state death verifications.

Per HuffPost:

According to emails obtained by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Social Security staff informed Dudek that canceling the contracts “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”

Dudek told his staff to go for it.

“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Mills.

Canceling the vital records contracts would make it more difficult for the federal government to track births and deaths in Maine, hampering efforts to prevent fraud across government agencies, all of which use Social Security records to prevent improper payments.

United States government group chat leak

Wikipedia

From March 11 to 15, 2025, a group of United States national security leaders conducted a group chat on the Signal messaging service about imminent military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. Among the chat's members were Vice President JD Vance, top White House staff, three Cabinet secretaries, and the directors of two Intelligence Community agencies. A high-profile leak occurred when National Security Advisor Mike Waltz erroneously added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the American magazine The Atlantic, to the group. On March 15, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used the chat to share details of the impending airstrikes, including types of aircraft and missiles, as well as launch and attack times. The name of an active undercover female CIA officer was mentioned by the CIA director in the chat.

The contents of the chat became public on March 24, when Goldberg published a partially redacted transcript in The Atlantic. The White House's National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes verified the chat's authenticity. After other Trump administration officials disputed Goldberg's characterization of the redacted sections as likely containing classified information, The Atlantic published the entire transcript on March 25. The incident raised concerns about national security leaders' information security practices, what other sensitive information they might have revealed, whether they were following records-preservation laws, accountability in the Trump administration, and more. The political scandal and U.S. government intelligence leak has been called Signalgate.

'Bombs started falling': Why is the 'SignalGate' controversy exploding?

Since the bombshell Atlantic article Monday, there's lots of finger-pointing about who's to blame and how bad the security breach was.

Portrait of Josh MeyerJosh Meyer

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – It's the kind of security breach – and screw-up – that even Hollywood producers wouldn’t dare conjure: All the nation’s top national security leaders gathering in a commercial messaging app to discuss active, highly classified military plans and operations, and they don’t even notice that one of the nation’s best investigative journalists has “inadvertently” been invited to join them.

Welcome to Day Three of "SignalGate," the fast-growing political controversy over at least 18 Trump administration officials’ use of an unsecured Signal chat to discuss real-time attacks on Houthi militants in Yemen earlier this month – as journalist Jeffrey Goldberg took notes for a magazine article he later published.

And more questions are arising, seemingly by the hour, despite an administration scramble to tamp down what national security experts say is one of the most serious White House national security breaches in years, if not decades.

Speculation about what was discussed in the group chat that included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Cabinet-level officials has exploded since the online publication of the bombshell article, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”

In it, Goldberg, the prize-winning editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, disclosed that “U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen."

Trump Justice officials demanded charges for Hillary, Biden for classified docs scandals. They’re silent on SignalGate

Story by Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN

When Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden faced intense scrutiny for their handling of classified material, top officials now serving in Trump’s Justice Department and FBI demanded criminal probes and severe penalties.

Yet today, those same figures – including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and DC interim US Attorney Ed Martin – have all declined to publicly criticize senior Trump officials who used Signal to share military attack plans in a chat that inadvertently included a journalist.

The Trump administration has denied any classified information was discussed in the text messages released by The Atlantic about plans to bomb rebels in Yemen, but CNN reported that information shared in the chat was highly classified at the time it was sent.

Bondi, now the country’s highest ranking law enforcement official, vigorously defended the officials who participated in the Signal chat, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and suggested it was unlikely their actions would be investigated criminally. But previously, Bondi argued that both Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin needed to face charges after emails that contained classified information were found on the computer of her ex-husband, former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“This has everything to do with the security of our country,” Bondi said in January 2018 on Fox News. “When you have the top-secret security clearance that Huma Abedin had – you know when you send those emails that you are violating the law, and there is no objective law enforcement officer in this country that would not charge her based on that. Alright? No one.”

Maddow Blog | White House retaliation against Maine sparks calls for a key official’s resignation

Story by Steve Benen

A month into Donald Trump’s second term, the president hosted a White House event for the National Governors Association, which didn’t quite go as planned. The Republican picked a fight with Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, over transgender student-athletes, apparently hoping to bully her into submission.

It didn’t work. “See you in court,” the governor told him.

Ideally, at this point, the dispute would be handled responsibly through a legal process. But as The Washington Post reported, the Trump administration appears to have settled on a different kind of course.

In an email first obtained by The Washington Post, Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security Administration chief, wrote that Mills was “disrespectful” and “unprofessional” toward Trump. Dudek added that canceling the contracts would lead to an increase in the number of improper payments, but he directed officials to do it anyway.

“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Mills.

Signalgate scandal has long distance legs

by Don Wolfensberger, opinion contributor

Something about Washington loves a good scandal: big or small, true or false, verifiable or unreliable. Like rumors, scandals come in all shapes and sizes. Like rumors, most have some basis in fact, but then increasingly transmogrify by sprouting new appendages, all depending on who is telling the tale.

At the first scent of scandal, the media buzzards start circling and the political grackles start cackling. It’s an almost electric phenomenon that excites the city as rumors grow and take on new life.

This whole phenomenon surfaced again recently with, “Signalgate” after an internal executive branch national security conversation among principals over the commercial messaging app, Signal, came to light when a journalist was inadvertently included on the thread. The transcript included details on when airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen would occur, and what type of aircraft and munitions were being used.

The suffix “-gate” has often been appended to scandals ever since the Nixon-era Watergate scandal of the 1970s. (The Watergate was the name of the office complex housing Democratic headquarters where President Richard Nixon’s operatives, aka the “plumbers,” were planting listening devices.)

The foregoing light treatment of the term “scandal” is not meant to diminish the often serious nature of scandals that do occur. Rather it is intended to caution the curious to tread carefully in analyzing scandals.

'Infuriated at the inefficiency': Workers mistakenly fired by DOGE error hired back

Story by Adam Lynch

While Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Gen-Z-aged software programmers are firing federal employees (including veterans), a computer code appears to have been responsible for the laying off of 30 medical-related employees, including more than 10 laboratory leaders, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). NINDS’ office of Human Resources scrambled to quickly re-hire the wrongly fired staff this week after a coding error mislabeled employees with incorrect position codes.

“NIH leadership has informed us that the individuals below should be contacted ASAP and told immediately return to work,” the HR email stated. Among reinstated employees are three senior scientists and staff in the Office of Research Training and Career Development, as well as people in the Office of the Scientific Director and facilities. One of the employees also included Richard Youle, who claimed a 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences after showing how clearing out damaged organelles discourages Parkinson’s disease.

“I am infuriated at the inefficiency of the time wasted by staff running around having to respond to these events, heartbroken for the emotional cost for hardworking, dedicated civil servants and scientific trainees just starting their careers,” an anonymous NINDS employee told The Transmitter.

Untested new software installed by DOGE employees crashing Social Security servers: report

Story by Tom Boggioni

Retirees and other beneficiaries of funds distributed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) are having major problems accessing their online accounts since staffers from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have assumed control of the agency

According to a report from the Washington Post, access to accounts has been unavailable for hours extending into days after new software was installed, with a message popping up reading "Online Service Not Available" and ending there.

As the Post's Lisa Rein, Hannah Natanson and Elizabeth Dwoskin are reporting, "Even when the site is back online, many customers have not been able to sign in to their accounts — or have logged in only to find information missing. For others, access to the system has been slow, requiring repeated tries to get in."

‘Signalgate’ Exposes Hypocrisy At High Level

Story by Brandi Buchman

The Pentagon’s inspector general, Steven Stebbins, said late last week that he will open an investigation into “Signalgate,” the portmanteau for the scandal created last month when a team of high-ranking Trump officials used the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss real-time war plans, in what amounted to a massive breach of security.

The investigation will focus on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s use of the app, rather than secure government channels, to discuss detailed information about a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen and whether doing so was in line with Department of Defense policy.

“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” the announcement reads.

It’s the first indication of any kind of potential administration repercussions for the dozen or so Cabinet officials and surrogates who were involved in the chat. In fact, the messaging so far has been largely the opposite: The White House has attempted to paper over the severity of the bombshell revelation, even though President Donald Trump and his administration have long claimed to have no tolerance for anything that could jeopardize national security.

The scandal was revealed when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published a March 24 article in which he said he had been added to a chat on the messaging app Signal that involved 18 high-ranking administration officials, including Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz. The group chat included details about an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen that has since been carried out, including times, types of aircraft, and targets. The Atlantic reported that the National Security Council authenticated the text chain.

Some of the messages were set to automatically delete one to four weeks after they were sent, a function that must be manually turned on by the creator of the chat, even though the Federal Records Act requires officials to preserve their communications.

It was an objectively stunning leak. But the White House raced to downplay the report.

The White House’s group chat screwup is even more ridiculous than we thought
Story by Wes Davis

Last month, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal group chat about a military strike in Yemen planned for later that day. Now, sources inside the White House have apparently told The Guardian that an internal investigation revealed the roundabout way that happened: Siri was being helpful.

When national security adviser Mike Waltz invited Goldberg to the chat, he was actually trying to add a Trump spokesperson whose contact information contained Goldberg’s number, according to The Guardian. The outlet says that’s because he approved a Siri suggestion to update the contact at some point previously.

Here’s The Guardian’s description of how that happened:

According to three people briefed on the internal investigation, Goldberg had emailed the campaign about a story that criticized Trump for his attitude towards wounded service members. To push back against the story, the campaign enlisted the help of Waltz, their national security surrogate.

Goldberg’s email was forwarded to then Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who then copied and pasted the content of the email – including the signature block with Goldberg’s phone number – into a text message that he sent to Waltz, so that he could be briefed on the forthcoming story.

And later:

According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related.

It’s true that Siri can make suggestions based on info like phone numbers that it finds in your text messages — something you can disable in the iOS Settings app.

A whistleblower accuses Elon Musk and DOGE of being at the origin of a major security breach

Story by Stephanie Gauthier

According to a complaint filed by the organization Whistleblower Aid, Daniel Berulis, a former computer specialist at the US government agency National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), recently raised the alarm about a potential serious security breach involving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and his team.

EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that … information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

— NPR (@npr.org) 2025-04-15T10:10:22.927Z

Berulis claims that he observed disturbing things in March 2025, when members of the DOGE team obtained extended access to the NLRB’s internal systems, allowing them to view, copy, and modify sensitive data.

According to the whistleblower, the data in question included files related to ongoing union cases, confidential testimonies, personal information about employees, and sensitive information about business owners.

According to the computer specialist, he immediately observed unusual activity on the NLRB’s computer network, including a significant increase in outgoing data volume, estimated by him to be around 10 gigabytes.

Donald J. Trump 1st Term Administration Scandals, Corruption and Lawsuits

Donald J. Trump 2nd Term Administration Scandals, Corruption and Lawsuits Page 1