Lawsuit against Elon Musk: access to US payment system disputed

Tech billionaire Elon Musk and his savings committee Doge can control payments from the US Treasury. There is now resistance to this.

Trade unions have filed a lawsuit to prevent Elon Musk and his confidants from accessing a US Treasury Department payment system. In the statement of claim, they argue that access for representatives of Musk’s cost-cutting committee Doge is illegal and, above all, violates data protection rules.

The system is also used to process payments to government employees and pensioners. The two trade unions and a pensioners’ representative body therefore believe that their members’ rights have been violated. Finance Minister Scott Bessent and his ministry have been sued.

Doge employees’ access to the Treasury Department’s payment system was revealed by US media reports over the weekend. President Donald Trump, who had tasked Musk with cutting government spending, confirmed this on Monday. However, the aim was merely to allow Musk to gather information on the basis of which government employees could be fired if the tech billionaire deemed it necessary – “and we agree with him”, Trump said.

The name Doge is indeed the abbreviation for Department of Government Efficiency – but unlike in other cases with the designation “Department”, it is not an authority at the level of a ministry, but a committee at the White House.

dpa