(VitalNews.org) – President Donald Trump faces shocking judicial obstruction as a Maryland judge blocked Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Social Security data.
Judge Ellen Hollander’s restraining order halts efforts to root out waste and fraud, raising serious questions about judicial overreach and the deep state’s resistance to the president’s efficiency mandate.
The federal judge prohibited Musk’s DOGE from accessing sensitive systems at the Social Security Administration.
Hollander issued a temporary restraining order that immediately stopped DOGE from reviewing millions of records that could potentially reveal fraud and waste in the massive federal program.
The order not only blocks DOGE from accessing the data but demands the destruction of any non-anonymized information already obtained.
This aggressive judicial action comes despite DOGE’s mission to streamline government operations and eliminate inefficiencies that cost American taxpayers billions every year.
Appointed by President Obama in 2010, Hollander described DOGE’s fraud investigation as a “fishing expedition.”
She dismissed legitimate concerns about waste and abuse in one of the government’s largest entitlement programs.
The judge’s decision prioritizes bureaucratic procedures over the Trump administration’s mandate to reform bloated government agencies.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander ruled.
Two labor unions and a left-leaning advocacy group initiated the lawsuit that prompted this judicial interference.
These organizations have been blasted for having clear interests in maintaining the bureaucratic status quo.
Under the judge’s order, DOGE is now barred from installing or altering software in SSA systems and must remove any software installed since President Trump began his second term.
This ruling creates a concerning precedent where unelected judges can obstruct executive branch efforts to fulfill campaign promises of government reform.
The restraining order essentially handcuffs President Trump’s efficiency experts while potentially allowing fraud and waste to continue unchecked within the Social Security system.
DOGE, which has already identified significant inefficiencies at other agencies including the Treasury Department and IRS, must now complete additional training and provide detailed explanations before regaining access to the data needed to do its job.
Although she did recognize DOGE’s actions were “in the public interest,” Hollander claimed that “that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so.”
This is not the first time judicial activism has targeted DOGE’s mission. Another federal judge previously interfered with DOGE’s efforts to streamline the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The organization has long been criticized for inefficiency and questionable foreign aid distribution.
These coordinated judicial roadblocks suggest an organized resistance to President Trump’s government reform agenda.
The temporary restraining order represents yet another example of the establishment’s efforts to protect its bloated bureaucracy from accountability and reform.
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