“The latest evidence that DOGE abused Americans’ private Social Security data should come as no surprise. We have warned from the beginning that DOGE had no business accessing this data and that no good could come of it. The Trump administration never provided a rational justification. Last June, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that barred DOGE from accessing Americans’ Social Security data. This gave DOGE carte blanche to misuse Americans’ personal information that it never should have had in the first place.
Now, the Trump administration is attempting to single-out and scapegoat two DOGE staffers because of the latest breach. No doubt, any DOGE employees who misused Americans’ personal Social Security data (in this case, reportedly by promising to share it with a third-party in order to ‘overturn election results’) should be held accountable for their actions. But this reported malfeasance was enabled by a culture created by the Trump Administration, Elon Musk, and DOGE soon after the president took office — a culture of recklessly interfering in the legitimate functions of the federal government with questionable intent and zero accountability.
DOGE’s supposed mission, as directed by the White House, was to root out alleged ‘fraud’ at the Social Security Administration. It found no significant fraud but hobbled SSA’s ability to serve the 70 million people who rely on Social Security — by slashing the workforce and erecting new hurdles for beneficiaries simply trying to access their earned benefits. The reported abuses of Social Security data are part of this relentless attack on the functioning of the Social Security Administration, under the phony cover of hunting for ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ at what was among the most efficient federal agencies.
This week’s reports of DOGE malfeasance are not isolated. In August, DOGE team members were found to have uploaded the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to a ‘vulnerable cloud server’ without any credible explanation.
We stand with Congressmen Larson and Neal in demanding ‘a full criminal investigation into DOGE leaks of private Social Security data to Elon Musk’s associates and immediate congressional action to safeguard Americans’ privacy.'” – Max Richtman, President & CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
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Media Inquiries:
Walter Gottlieb
Director of Communications