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President Donald Trump's billionaire adviser Tesla CEO Elon Musk controls the Department of Government Efficiency which obtained sensitive Treasury information including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems from two people familiar with the situation.
DOGE gained permissions from the Trump administration to explore essential taxpayer information among other materials by joining the Trump administration's workforce evaluation and regulatory reduction effort.
The first announcement about DOGE accessing the huge federal payment structure appeared in The New York Times. Two unnamed individuals who spoke with The Associated Press refused to provide their names due to lack of authority to speak publicly.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon who holds the top position on the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter to Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Friday stating concerns about officials associated with Musk dealing with these payments systems to illegally withhold funds from multiple programs. Wyden emphasized: "These payment systems cannot face failure because political interference within them presents significant perils for national economy and our country as a whole."
Treasury experienced two key events as its acting Deputy Secretary David Lebryk reached his thirty-year mark of service before deciding to step down from his post. The Washington Post documented how Lebryk stepped down from Treasury after the DOGE organization and its leader Elon Musk demanded confidential Treasury information.
According to Lebryk in his Friday letter to Treasury employees “The Fiscal Service performs some of the most vital functions in government." The exceptionally important work that our organization performs exists beyond the awareness of most people in the public. The time I spent along talented operations staff at the nation’s highest level remains one of my greatest professional achievements. No reference to DOGE presence was included among the statements in the letter as the Treasury payment access requirement.
According to Musk on X he learned through DOGE that Treasury payment approval personnel received instructions to always approve payments towards fraudulent and terrorist organizations. During their three decades in service they rejected no payment requests whatsoever. Not even once." The evidence to support his statement remained unsubstantiated.
When DOGE was launched Musk collaborated with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to establish the project with promises of slashing budget expenses while executing workforce reductions throughout federal agencies. Ramaswamy departed DOGE because he is exploring a gubernatorial campaign for Ohio.
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