President Donald Trump said that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) doesn't actually require the unprecedented access it has been granted to sensitive Treasury Department information.
"Why does DOGE need all of that?" a reporter asked Trump during a Friday news conference, alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
"It doesn't," Trump replied.
Why It Matters
Democratic lawmakers have sounded the alarm over DOGE's potentially unrestricted access to highly sensitive government information, warning it is another example of the Tesla CEO's influence within the Trump administration.
Members of Musk's department, who have not received security clearance, have been given access to the Treasury's payment and collections system, which contains the Social Security numbers and bank accounts of millions of Americans.
Another DOGE member, Luke Farritor, 23, has also gained IT access to the Washington department overseeing nuclear weapons, without a government background check, according to multiple reports.
Farritor is now listed in the Department of Energy's staff directory as an "information engineer," E&E News reported. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify this information.
He was among six young engineers hired by Musk to work at DOGE, according to reports from The New York Times and Wired.
What To Know
Trump on Friday confirmed that DOGE doesn't need much of its access to Americans' sensitive data, before claiming that government systems are not secure.
"But they get it very easily," he said, referring to DOGE. "And we don't have very good security in our country, and they get it very easily."
Trump praised Musk and his department, suggesting they would also be gaining access to government information on the Department of Education and the military next.
"We're going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money, being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value. We're talking about trillions of dollars," he said.
Trump announced the formation of DOGE to "dismantle" government bureaucracy and aggressively slash federal spending and employees.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to restrict DOGE's access to sensitive Treasury Department records.
Lawyers for the DOJ submitted court filings restricting access to read-only, and for just two Treasury Department employees affiliated with DOGE—Tom Krause and Marko Elez.
The move came after the Treasury was hit by a lawsuit by two unions and an advocacy group, accusing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of allowing Musk's team "unlawful access" to federal employees' private information.
The DOJ's court filing did not deter another lawsuit, filed on Friday by 19 Democratic attorneys general, to prevent DOGE access entirely.
What People Are Saying
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office filed Friday's lawsuit, said: "President Trump does not have the power to give away Americans' private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress. Musk and DOGE have no authority to access Americans' private information and some of our country's most sensitive data."
Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee members in their letter to Susie Wiles: "No information has been provided to Congress or the public as to who has been formally hired under DOGE, under what authority or regulations DOGE is operating, or how DOGE is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans' personal information."
Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said on X, formerly Twitter: "Elon Musk seized control of our federal computer systems so he and his team of six engineers age 19 to 24 can simply decide for themselves what they think the government should and should not do. They keep what they think should be kept, and simply delete what they want to delete."
What Happens Next
The DOJ's order to partially restrict access to the Treasury's data still needs approval by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the case.
But many Democrats are demanding that DOGE's access gets revoked entirely.
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