More than 100 current and former federal employees have sued Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agency he heads for allegedly accessing sensitive personnel data without proper vetting or authorization.
More than 100 current and former federal employees have sued Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agency he heads for allegedly accessing sensitive personnel data without proper vetting or authorization.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday by legal groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 103 employees and various civil service unions. The plaintiffs are demanding that the government’s top human resources agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), block access to DOGE and its agents, TechCrunch reports.
«The OPM Defendants granted the DOGE Defendants and DOGE agents — many of whom are under the age of 25 and are or were until recently employees of Musk’s private companies — ‘administrative’ access to OPM computer systems without undergoing any normal, rigorous national security review,» the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit names Elon Musk, DOGE, OPM, and current OPM director Charles Ezell as defendants.
It is also alleged that DOGE, by obtaining OPM records, violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits unauthorized access to personal data, including in federal agencies.
«The Privacy Act prohibits the OPM Defendants from providing access to millions of OPM personnel records to the DOGE Defendants who do not have a legitimate and reasonable need for such access,» the lawsuit states. «No exception to the Privacy Act applies to the DOGE Defendants’ access to records maintained by OPM.»
The lawsuit alleges that DOGE agents were not government employees at the time they accessed OPM’s computer networks. It names 19-year-old DOGE employee Edward Coristin, known online as «Big Eggs,» for being fired from the cybersecurity firm after an internal investigation into a data breach while he was on the job.
It also claims that DOGE’s access to federal employees’ data could have negative professional consequences for them, noting that Musk and President Trump have threatened to fire employees they deem disloyal. Exposing their financial data could also lead to hacking attacks by criminals and foreign entities, the lawsuit says.
