A judge in the United States has restricted the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Treasury systems

After several unions accused the Treasury Department of illegally sharing their members' information with Musk's government efficiency unit, a U.S. judge temporarily restricted the department's access to the Treasury's payment system.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday barred the Treasury Department from providing access to "any payment records or payment records system maintained or maintained by the Bureau of Fiscal Services," with some exceptions. The judge is also considering the union's request for a broader temporary restraining order.

Although only temporarily, this is the first time a judge has restricted access to the Government Efficiency Department.

The judge ordered that the Treasury Department recently brought in two "special government employees" associated with the Department of Government Efficiency, Tom Krause, chief executive of Cloud Software Group Inc., to have "read-only" access to Treasury systems. And Marko Elez, an engineer who worked at SpaceX and social media company X.

Both men have offices in the Treasury Department, have agency email addresses and have access to some secure but unclassified Treasury information, Bloomberg previously reported.

The White House has said Musk is also a special government employee.

The White House has previously said there was nothing improper about the Department's actions.