A group of state attorneys general on Thursday sued to halt Elon Musk's efforts to slash federal spending as head of President Donald Trump's new government efficiency agency, escalating the legal fight over the billionaire's influence in the White House.

The lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court filed by the attorneys general of New Mexico and 13 other states alleges Trump has given Musk "unchecked legal authority" without authorization from the U.S. Congress.

Musk's team has swept through federal agencies since Trump, a Republican, became president last month and put the CEO of carmaker Tesla and the world's richest person in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of a dramatic overhaul of government.

Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been hit with several privacy lawsuits over their access to government computer systems. The new lawsuit alleges Musk was illegally appointed and seeks an order barring him from taking any further government action.

"Oblivious to the threat this poses to the nation, President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities," the states said, calling Musk an "agent of chaos" in the government.

Two federal judges overseeing ongoing privacy cases against DOGE will consider on Friday whether the agency will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at U.S. health, consumer protection and labor agencies.

In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer will consider a request by Democratic state attorneys general to extend a temporary block on DOGE that he put in place on Saturday, which prevented Musk's team from accessing Treasury systems responsible for trillions of dollars of payments.

The states allege that Musk's team has no legal power to access the payment systems that contain sensitive personal information on millions of Americans. (Reuters, excluding headline)

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