A US judge has extended a temporary ban on Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness accessing the US Treasury's payment systems. In the early hours of February 8 local time, a US federal judge temporarily blocked Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness from accessing the government systems used by the US Treasury to process trillions of dollars in payments, citing the risk that sensitive and confidential information could be improperly leaked. The order was issued by US District Judge Engel in Manhattan after a coalition of 19 US states, most of them led by Democrats, filed a lawsuit saying Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness had no right to access the US Treasury's systems.