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- A judge blocked the White House DOGE office from accessing Social Security Administration records.
- Labor groups sued the SSA for granting DOGE access to sensitive personal information.
- The judge criticized DOGE’s broad access and said it was “engaged in a fishing expedition” for fraud.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the White House DOGE office from accessing the Social Security Administration records of millions of Americans.
In a scathing ruling, US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander sided with the national labor groups that sued the SSA over DOGE staffers’ access to the records, which she said included Social Security numbers, medical records, bank account data, and more.
She granted the labor groups, which include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, their request for a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE from accessing the records.
“Ironically, the identity of these DOGE affiliates has been concealed because defendants are concerned that the disclosure of even their names would expose them to harassment and thus invade their privacy. The defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans whose SSA records were made available to the DOGE affiliates, without their consent, and which contain sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information,” Hollander wrote.
A spokesperson for the SSA told Business Insider the agency would work to comply with the judge’s order.
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, criticized the judge’s decision in a statement provided to BI and said President Donald Trump would “continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people goes into effect.”
Hollander said in her ruling that DOGE was “engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA” and looking for fraud “based on little more than suspicion.” She said the government has not explained why DOGE needed unlimited access to SSA’s records or why a more measured approach would not work.
“The American public may well applaud and support the Trump Administration’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and bloat from federal agencies, including SSA, to the extent it exists,” Hollander wrote. “But, by what means and methods?”
