The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseen by President Donald Trump’s billionaire advisor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has reportedly gained access to highly sensitive Treasury data, including information related to Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
This development, which involves a task force from the Trump administration created to explore ways to reduce the federal workforce, cut programs, and dismantle federal regulations, gives DOGE the potential to access critical taxpayer data and other important information.
The New York Times was the first to report on the group’s ability to access the extensive federal payment system. The two individuals who spoke with The Associated Press did so on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to disclose such details publicly.
Senator Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, expressed concern over the situation on Friday. He sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, raising alarms that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs.”
“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy,” Wyden said.
This news follows the resignation of David Lebryk, who had served as the acting Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for over 30 years. According to The Washington Post on Friday, Lebryk resigned after Musk and his DOGE organization made a request for access to sensitive Treasury data.
“The Fiscal Service performs some of the most vital functions in government,” Lebryk said in a letter to Treasury employees on Friday. “Our work may be unknown to most of the public, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t exceptionally important. I am grateful for having been able to work alongside some of the nation’s best and most talented operations staff.”
The letter did not mention DOGE’s request for access to Treasury payments.
In response to a social media post on X regarding Lebryk’s resignation, Musk commented on Saturday: “The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once.”
Musk did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
DOGE was initially led by Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who together promised to make deep cuts to the federal budget and implement “mass headcount reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”
Ramaswamy has since stepped away from DOGE as he considers a run for governor of Ohio.
{Matzav.com}