Lawsuit Targets DOGE’s Access at the IRS

A file photo of the IRS building in Washington. AP Photo/J. David Ake, File

Unions, a taxpayer advocacy group, and a small business group have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over accessing taxpayer data within the IRS.

In their lawsuit, the unions and other groups alleged that DOGE was violating tax and privacy laws by accessing the IRS systems. This adds to more than a dozen legal challenges against DOGE and the Trump administration.

Named in the suit are the IRS, IRS Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell, the U.S. Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and DOGE.

Plaintiffs are the Center for Taxpayer Rights, the Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and the Communications Workers of America.

“DOGE will also have access to tax records of Mr. Musk’s business competitors, which are held by the IRS. No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,” the lawsuit states.

The groups further claimed that DOGE will gain “access to confidential business information, including profit and loss statements, payroll information, and other sensitive business information” while having “access to information about IRS investigations and reports on suspected tax fraud activity, which could include investigations or reports pertaining to Mr. Musk’s businesses or those of his competitors.”

The lawsuit provided no evidence that DOGE was accessing sensitive and confidential business information, or information relating to Musk’s companies.

The plaintiffs asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue a temporary injunction to block DOGE’s access to the IRS.

This past week, President Donald Trump, who created DOGE via executive order, told reporters in the White House that DOGE would eventually get around to the IRS.

“I think that the Internal Revenue Service will be looked at like everybody else; just about everybody is going to be looked at,” Trump told reporters on Feb. 13, adding that he believes DOGE is doing “an amazing job.”

He and Musk have said that DOGE is working to root out fraud, waste, and other forms of abuse inside the federal government.

Neither Musk nor DOGE has issued many public statements on the group’s work inside the IRS, although the organization set up an X account called “DOGE IRS” and issued one post on Monday afternoon.

“DOGE is seeking help from the public! Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Internal Revenue Service,” the post said.

Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Monday: “Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.

“DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on.”

On Monday, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the IRS’s acting commissioner requesting answers to questions about DOGE’s access to IRS systems during tax-filing season and about the roles of specific DOGE employees.

“We are also extremely concerned that DOGE personnel meddling with IRS systems in the middle of tax filing season could, inadvertently or otherwise, cause breakdowns that may delay the issuance of tax refunds indefinitely,” the letter said.