'Now the harder test': Experts cautiously celebrate as Musk locked out of Treasury systems

06 February

A federal judge just issued an order locking employees of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk out of the U.S. Treasury's internal systems managing roughly $6 trillion in annual payments. Legal experts are celebrating the win, but warn that the fight is not yet over.

On Thursday, Brookings Institution senior fellow Norm Eisen announced that a federal judge sided with plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Treasury Department and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. In the court order, Senior U.S. District Judge Colleen Kottar-Kotelly (appointed by President Bill Clinton) ordered that the Treasury Department not grant access to any of the payment systems, while specifying that Musk employees Tom Krause and Marko Elez be relegated to read-only access.

Eisen's post was met with celebration, though some urged continued vigilance and follow-through. University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald observed that the "next step" could be to "ignore the courts." George Mason University political scientist Jennifer N. Victor noted that it's possible that President Donald Trump's administration could choose to ignore the court order.

"Good news, but now the harder test. Will Trump comply?" She wrote. "If not, who will provide enforcement? According to the Constitution, it’s Congress’s job to oversee the bureaucracy. But the judicial and legislative branches have few tools — all administrative —to enforce laws and rulings."

Mother Jones reporter David Corn also hoped for "good enforcement" of the ruling. University of Kansas religious studies professor Sam Brody echoed that sentiment on Bluesky, and called on "security guards at Treasury" to physically prevent Musk's representatives from entering the building.

"In a lawless situation, it actually does come down to guys with guns standing in front of doors," Brody wrote.

"Now, we need real government [information technology] experts to go in there and re-secure the data and make sure malware wasn't deposited by Chinese, Iranian or Russian operatives - or by Musk and his boy band - after admin access was granted," Quinnippiac University journalism professor emeritus Rich Hanley posted to Bluesky. "I'm sure security wasn't part of their foray into the data trove."

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