On February 3, a joint report by Popular Information and Musk Watch broke the news that several Elon Musk associates working for the U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE) received unprecedented access to federal human resources databases containing sensitive personal information for millions of federal employees. According to two staffers at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with direct knowledge, the DOGE team at OPM was empowered to extract information from databases that store medical histories, personally identifiable information, workplace evaluations, and other private data. Internal OPM correspondence obtained by Popular Information and Musk Watch confirmed that expansive access to the databases was provided to the DOGE team.

OPM staffers said that the unprecedented arrangement created acute privacy and security risks.

Musk associates given unfettered access to private data of government employees Caleb Ecarma and Judd Legum · Feb 3 Read full story

On February 10, a coalition of labor unions representing federal workers — including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Federation of Federal Employees — sued OPM. Citing the report from Popular Information and Musk Watch seven times, the complaint argued that by providing access to sensitive and confidential information about federal employees to DOGE, OPM violated federal law — including the Privacy Act. The lawsuit sought an injunction preventing "further unauthorized and improper disclosures and ensuring that improper disclosures to DOGE representatives stop immediately."

On February 24, the court granted the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against OPM. The TRO states that OPM is "ENJOINED from disclosing the personally identifiable information of the plaintiffs and the members of the plaintiff organizations to any OPM employee working principally on the DOGE agenda."

The Trump administration argued that there was no harm in giving DOGE full access to the databases, but the court rejected that argument. "To say that the plaintiffs suffer no cognizable injury when their personal information is improperly disclosed to government employees would nullify their interest in preventing unlawful government intrusion into their private affairs," the court said.

The TRO, which expires March 10, will give the court time to make a final determination about whether DOGE should be permitted to have access to these federal employee databases. The court found that the plaintiffs "have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that OPM’s disclosure of their records to DOGE affiliates… violates the Privacy Act."

The TRO represents a major legal setback for Musk and DOGE.