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A democratic senator has claimed representatives of Elon Musk’s DOGE were given “full access” to a critical United States Treasury payment system that is used to distribute trillions of dollars to Americans every year.
Sen. Ron Wyden from Oregon has insisted the access facilitated to Musk is a “national security risk”.
Wyden, a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, posted on BlueSky to detail the information given to him.
He conveyed how Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Musk’s team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), approved access to the sensitive portal and all of the information it holds, on Friday.
“Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it,” said Wyden in the BlueSky post.
Earlier in the week, the highest-ranking career official in the Treasury quit his role due to the presence of, and access given, to DOGE.
After decades of service, David Lebryk is expected to leave the department in the near future.
DOGE was instigated following an executive order by President Donald Trump to kick-start the upcoming agenda, “by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
From Ron Wyden official account re: Musk and DOGE on this site's competitor pic.twitter.com/s8omu8Jpc3
— Draconic Intel 🇺🇦🇨🇳🇺🇲🇬🇧🇪🇺 #FBPE (@DraconicIntel) February 1, 2025
Further conflict and fallout
In related news, two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they pushed back against DOGE attempts to access their systems.
NBC has reported that the DOGE reps wanted to access files and systems beyond their security clearance and when USAID Director of Security John Voorhees and his deputy, Brian McGill refused to comply, they were threatened with the federal Marshals Service.
The DOGE team members were said to have eventually been granted access to the desired systems, but it is not clear what exactly was accessed.
Voorhees and McGill have been placed on administrative leave.
Image credit: Via Midjourney
