DOGE employees may have improperly accessed social security data, DOJ says
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Elon Musk walks to the White House on March 9. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Members of Elon Musk's DOGE team may have accessed Social Security information that was off-limits under a court ruling and shared agency data on third-party servers, the Department of Justice said in a court filing last week.
Why it matters: It's a stunning admission from the Trump administration, after it battled in court over DOGE's rights to access and use Social Security data as part of its effort to uncover fraud and waste.
- The White House and Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Zoom in: At least two DOGE employees, the filing reveals, were in touch with a political advocacy group that asked them to analyze data from state voter rolls as part of its effort to overturn election results.
- One of the employees signed a "Voter Data Agreement" with the group, according to the filing. It's unclear what the agreement entailed.
- There was no indication that either employee shared social security data with the group, the filing said.
- The Social Security Administration referred both employees for potential Hatch Act violations, per the filing.
Zoom out: The Social Security Administration was unable to determine exactly what data were shared via the unapproved third-party server or whether the data remains on the server.
- The disclosures, filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, were among a list of "corrections" to the record.
- The SSA believed its statements "to be accurate at the time they were made, and they are largely still accurate," the DOJ's lawyers wrote in the filing.
Read the full filing here:
Editor's note: This story has been updated with details throughout.
