US states say Trump illegally appointed Elon Musk to head Doge

NEW YORK – A group of state attorneys-general on Feb 13 sued to halt Mr Elon Musk’s efforts to slash federal spending as head of President Donald Trump’s new government efficiency agency, escalating the legal fight over the billionaire’s influence in the White House.

The lawsuit in a Washington, DC federal court filed by the attorneys-general of New Mexico and 13 other states alleges Mr Trump has given Mr Musk “unchecked legal authority” without authorisation from the US Congress.

Mr Musk’s team has swept through federal agencies since Mr Trump, a Republican, became president in January and put the chief executive officer of carmaker Tesla and the world’s richest person in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of a dramatic overhaul of government.

Mr Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) have been hit with several privacy lawsuits over their access to government computer systems. The new lawsuit alleges he was illegally appointed and seeks an order barring him from taking any further government action.

“Oblivious to the threat this poses to the nation, President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr Musk without proper legal authorisation from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities,” the states said, calling Mr Musk an “agent of chaos” in the government.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two federal judges overseeing ongoing privacy cases against Doge will consider on Feb 14 whether the agency will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at US health, consumer protection and labour agencies.

In Manhattan, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer will consider a request by Democratic state attorneys-general to extend a temporary block on Doge that he put in place on Feb 8, which prevented Mr Musk’s team from accessing Treasury systems responsible for trillions of dollars of payments. 

The states allege that Mr Musk’s team has no legal power to access the payment systems that contain sensitive personal information on millions of Americans.

The lawsuit argued that Mr Musk and his team could disrupt federal funding for health clinics, pre-schools, climate initiatives and other programmes, and that Mr Trump could use the information to further his political agenda.

In Washington, US District Judge John Bates will consider a request by unions to prevent the Doge team from accessing sensitive records at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Labour Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Most of Mr Trump’s initiatives that have been legally challenged have been blocked by the courts, and this has prompted Mr Musk and other Trump allies to call for judges to be impeached, although the President said he would obey court orders.

Despite some initiatives being blocked in court, Mr Trump’s administration has pushed ahead with mass firings of government workers and has sharply curtailed America’s foreign aid programme. The cost-cutting appears to be focused on programmes opposed by political conservatives. REUTERS