A federal judge in Washington Monday morning appeared inclined to deny an urgent request to temporarily block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from firing employees or accessing sensitive records from a half-dozen federal departments.

After a nearly hourlong virtual hearing, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she planned to issue a ruling within 24 hours on a request by 14 state attorneys general to issue a temporary restraining order that would block DOGE from firing employees or accessing data from the departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, Commerce, and the Office of Personnel Management.

Describing the states’ request as “prophylactic,” Chutkan expressed skepticism about issuing a wide-reaching order while the plaintiffs struggled to prove a concrete harm stemming from DOGE’s conduct.

“The court can’t act based on the media reports. We can’t do that,” Chutkan said. “The things that I’m hearing are concerning indeed and troubling indeed but I have to have a record, and I have to make a finding the facts before I issue something.”

She said that in order to issue such an urgent temporary restraining order, the states would have to prove a threat of “extreme” and “imminent harm” that “can’t be undone,” but having to “scramble to rehire” might be difficult and challenging, but it can be done.

“I’m not seeing it so far,” Chutkan said.

Read more here.

-From ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Mike Levine and Katherine Faulders

President Donald Trump’s administration acknowledged on Sunday night that some federal government employees who took the “Fork in the Road” buyout offer were also, subsequently, fired or let go — and that this was an error.

An Office of Personnel Management official told ABC News that some employees who responded to the buyout offer ahead of the deadline last week may have received termination notices by mistake but, for those personnel, the buyouts agreements would be honored.

Nick Detter told ABC News that he is one of those workers. Detter, a natural resource specialist with the USDA, said he was fired Thursday even though he already accepted the administration’s buyout offer, meaning that he should have been paid through September.

Despite OPM’s explanation, Detter says he hasn’t been able to get any guidance directly. He said that his supervisors in Kansas, where he’s based, told him they have no information.

“I frankly find it pretty insulting and chaotic and disorganized,” Detter told ABC News.

“I would never say that there’s no room for improvement efficiency in the federal government,” he said. “But in my experience over the last month with this whole thing, that’s not what this has been. This has just been slash and burn.”

-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Cheyenne Haslett, Sarah Lang and Ariana Nalty