WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling their work there a "fishing expedition."

The order also requires the team to delete any personally identifiable data in their possession.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security Administration to search for fraud with little justification.

"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," she wrote.

The order does allow DOGE staffers to access to data that's been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and background checks.

The order does allow DOGE staffers to access to data that's been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and background checks.

"To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest. But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so," Hollander wrote.

The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste in the federal government.

Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud, describing it as a "ponzi scheme" and insisting that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.

The ruling, which could be challenged on appeal, comes in a lawsuit filed by labor unions, retirees and the advocacy group Democracy Forward. They argued that DOGE access violates privacy laws and presents serious information security risks.

The lawsuit included a declaration from a recently departed Social Security official who saw the DOGE team sweep into the agency said she is deeply worried about sensitive information being exposed.