WASHINGTON (AP) – The Department of Government Efficiency, run by United States (US) President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser and Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, has gained access to sensitive Treasury data including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems, according to two people familiar with the situation.
The move by DOGE, a Trump administration task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programmes and slash federal regulations, means it could have wide leeway to access important taxpayer data, among other things.
The New York Times first reported the news of the group’s access of the massive federal payment system. The two people who spoke to The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
The highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, sent a letter to Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressing concern that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programmes”.
“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.
The news also comes after Treasury’s acting Deputy Secretary David Lebryk resigned from his position at Treasury after more than 30 years of service.
The Washington Post reported that Lebryk resigned his position after Musk and his DOGE organisation requested 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.
“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 a DOGE request to access Treasury payments.
Musk responded to a post on his social media platform X about the departure of Lebryk, “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.”
He did not provide proof of this claim.
