Last week, Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, sought to reassure Democrats on Capitol Hill about the presence of two of Elon Musk’s allies at her agency.
The Social Security Administration keeps medical information, bank account numbers and other sensitive personal data about the roughly 70 million Americans it provides with more than $1 trillion in benefits annually. In the Feb. 11 letter to Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, Ms. King said that the two representatives, from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, had not yet seen personal information — and said any disclosures would follow established procedures.
“I share your commitment to protecting sensitive personal and financial information from improper disclosure and misuse,” she wrote in the letter, which was viewed by The New York Times. “We follow all relevant laws and regulations when granting access to S.S.A. systems.”
Days later, Mr. Musk’s team sought access to the agency’s data. Ms. King resisted the request, and by Monday night she and her chief of staff, Tiffany Flick, were out of their jobs, according to three people familiar with their departures. The Trump administration elevated Leland Dudek, a relatively low-level staff member who had previously collaborated with DOGE, to temporarily lead the agency.
The episode at the Social Security Administration, which did not respond to requests for comment, has played out repeatedly across the federal government. In its stated quest to root out fraudulent government spending, Mr. Musk’s team of software engineers has repeatedly sought unfettered access to the wide range of personal information the U.S. government collects about its residents. The requests have often alarmed career civil servants used to jealously guarding data whose improper disclosure can in some cases violate federal law.
At the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Musk’s team is seeking to give at least one of its members, a software engineer named Gavin Kliger, broad access to the data included in the roughly 270 million tax returns that American individuals, businesses and nonprofits file each year.
Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, said that allowing DOGE into the taxpayer systems was necessary to prevent improper payments. “We are talking about performing a basic anti-fraud review to ensure that people are not engaging in a large-scale theft of federal taxpayer benefits,” he said in an interview on Fox News on Monday.
I.R.S. officials have questioned how much information Mr. Kliger and other DOGE staff would need to accomplish that, according to three people familiar with the matter, given that unmitigated access could allow Mr. Kliger the ability to view details about Americans’ work, investments and families. The I.R.S. has been crafting a memorandum of understanding that would establish parameters around Mr. Kliger’s duties at the tax agency, where he is expected to be detailed from the Office of Personnel Management. An I.R.S. spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
“If you’re interested in whether the I.R.S. program and computer systems are efficient, you don’t need taxpayer information to make that determination,” said Nina E. Olson, the executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, a group that sued the I.R.S. over the issue of DOGE access on Tuesday. “You can use anonymized data to do that.”
Labor unions and state governments have filed a series of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s ability to give political appointees the ability to view and potentially alter sensitive government databases. In some cases, including one focused on access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems, federal judges have temporarily blocked Mr. Musk’s team from accessing sensitive data. Other federal judges have declined to do so in cases involving other agencies.
At stake in the struggle between Mr. Musk and the career civil servants is the security of data that is routinely targeted by hackers and scammers hoping to exploit Americans, former government officials and experts say. Quick changes to the often old, intricate technology systems that house the data could also inadvertently break them, leading to cascading technology problems across the government.
“They could inadvertently make the system less secure and it would be a scammer’s dream,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a group that promotes the expansion of Social Security. “It would be a treasure trove because of all the information you’d have your hands on.”
Among the records the federal government keeps at the I.R.S. and elsewhere is corporate information, including about companies that Mr. Musk competes with. Earlier this month, Russell T. Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, instructed staff members at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to turn over all unclassified information to DOGE workers, according to two people familiar with the request.
It is unclear what the DOGE officials at the bureau have actually viewed. But the agency has a vast amount of data from e-payments firms like Zelle, Venmo, Apple Pay and Google Pay, all of which would compete directly with X Money Account, a payment system under development by Mr. Musk’s social media site, X.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is meant to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive financial practices, has opened several investigations of e-payments systems. The data collected in its investigations includes correspondence between executives, secret business plans and market analysis, according to one of the people.
Last week, the agency canceled several tech contracts that maintain an audit log system to track who has gained access to data, the employees said.
While many civil servants have been alarmed by the DOGE quest to look into sensitive government systems, some have been enthusiastic about it. Mr. Dudek, now the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, made posts on LinkedIn supporting Mr. Musk’s team.
In one post from last week viewed by The Times, Mr. Dudek, who did not respond to requests for comment, wrote that the Social Security Administration was investigating him for working with Mr. Musk’s team. He has since deleted his LinkedIn account.
“I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” he wrote. “Everything I have ever done is in service to our country, our beneficiaries, and our agency.”
Mr. Trump has nominated Frank Bisignano, a payment processing executive, to lead the Social Security Administration, though he is awaiting Senate confirmation.
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting.
