A judge in Manhattan agreed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should be allowed to access sensitive federal government payments data during a lawsuit, even as Elon Musk’s government efficiency team will remain locked out for now.

The ruling Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas is a partial win for President Donald Trump, who argued that limiting Bessent’s access to the Treasury Department data infringed on the executive branch. But it curbs, for now, some of the sweeping authority Trump granted the world’s richest man as he seeks to shrink federal spending across the government.

The decision amends a temporary restraining order that was issued last week by a different judge hours after a lawsuit was filed by a group of states challenging the access Bessent granted to the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. Vargas said the judge who issued the original order was correct in determining that “political appointees” more broadly still posed a potential threat to the safety of the private data.

The debate over the temporary order is a precursor to the legal fight over a longer lasting injunction requested by the states that would bar access to DOGE employees until the case is resolved, which could take months or even years. A hearing on the injunction is set for Feb. 14 in Manhattan.

At issue is access to Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Services, which distributes funds to tens of millions of Americans every year after receiving coded payment instructions from a wide variety of federal agencies, the states say. The funds include Social Security benefits, veteran’s benefits, childcare tax credits, federal employee wages and tax refunds.

The payment process requires BFS to store vast amounts of sensitive personally identifiable information like social security and bank account numbers, as well as private tax information, all of which is at risk due to the access by DOGE workers, the states say.

‘Clarify’ order

Vargas said she was amending the court order to “clarify that the Secretary of the Treasury and other Senate-confirmed senior Treasury Officers are not prohibited from accessing Treasury’s payment systems.” The order limiting access still applies to other political appointees, as well as “special government employees” like Musk, Vargas said.

Trump has encountered several legal setbacks to a slew of executive orders, which are being challenged across the U.S. in lawsuits by nonprofits, civil rights groups and states. Several initiatives have been put on hold, including limits on so-called birthright citizenship and a spending freeze on trillions of dollars in grants, loans and other financial assistance. On Tuesday, a judge ordered the administration to immediately restore public health information to websites.

Trump created DOGE by executive order last month and appointed Musk to lead what they described as an effort to modernize federal technology and identify spending cuts. But the move immediately raised legal concerns as Musk’s team sought access to government data systems.

A group of 19 states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, sued over the Treasury data last week. The state alleged that the private information of millions of Americans was placed at risk after Trump and Bessent granted Musk’s team access to the department’s massive payments database.

James’s office declined to comment on the Vargas order. The White House didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The states won the temporary restraining order hours after suing, when a judge agreed Musk’s access increased the risk that the data could be disclosed and made the systems “more vulnerable than before to hacking.” Neither Musk nor DOGE are named as defendants in the suit.

The case is New York v. Trump, 25-cv-1144, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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