Musk's team may access US Education Department systems, judge rules

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge has rejected a bid to bar the government downsizing team created by President Donald Trump and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk from accessing internal systems in the U.S. Department of Education that house federal student financial aid information concerning millions of Americans.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss declined to issue a temporary restraining order sought by the University of California Student Association to prevent the department from disclosing information to people affiliated with Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The student group's lawyers had argued that the Education Department's decision to grant DOGE access to student data violated its obligations under a federal law called the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code to protect the sensitive personal information of the borrowers.

But Moss, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, said the group presented no evidence "beyond sheer speculation" to support finding that staffers with the department or DOGE would misuse or improperly disclose information they are obligated by law to keep confidential.

The judge cited a declaration by Adam Ramada, a DOGE employee, who said that the six people working with his team to help audit for waste, fraud and abuse at the department and assist senior leadership in obtaining data understand they must comply with laws governing the disclosure of the information.

Adam Pulver, the student organization's lawyer at the group Public Citizen, said in a statement that despite the judge's decision, the litigation would continue and that "nothing in this ruling suggests that DOGE's access to sensitive student data is legal."

"As the case moves forward, we expect to learn more about just what DOGE is doing with the data students provided the department with an expectation of privacy," Pulver said.

The Education Department and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies since the Republican president returned to office last month and put the chief executive of carmaker Tesla in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of Trump's dramatic overhaul of government, which has included thousands of job cuts.

Several lawsuits have been filed by Democratic-led U.S. states and liberal-leaning legal groups seeking to prevent DOGE from accessing government systems. 

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday said she hoped to rule within 24 hours in a lawsuit by 13 Democratic state attorneys general seeking to block Musk and DOGE from accessing various government systems and firing employees at seven agencies.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan on Friday extended a block on DOGE from accessing payment systems at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Trump has called for shutting down the Education Department, calling it "a big con job." He has nominated former Small Business Administration chief and professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon to head the department, which was created in 1979. At her Senate confirmation hearing last week, McMahon echoed his calls to abolish it.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)