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When Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency started ransacking the federal government\u2019s data in early 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice insisted that DOGE goons never improperly accessed and shared private information at the Social Security Administration. That was an obvious lie, of course, but we now have a court filing that attempts to correct the record almost a year later. Unfortunately, the filing leaves us with more questions than answers, especially about a political group that was trying to get information from at least one DOGE member.<\/p>\n
The filing, which was first spotted by Politico, includes \u201ccorrections\u201d and \u201cclarifications\u201d to the court. The first clarification involves a temporary restraining order from March 20, 2025, and a declaration filed by the Department of Justice a few days later. The declaration insisted that they had \u201crevoked all SSA DOGE Team members\u2019 access to SSA systems containing personally identifiable information\u201d and systems. The new filing states that DOJ believed that statement to be true at the time, but now says one unidentified DOGE member was running searches of personally identifiable information (PII) on March 24, 2025.<\/p>\n
The next correction in the filing involves a prvious declaration that \u201cThe DOGE Defendants have never had access to SSA systems of record.\u201d But that wasn\u2019t true either. An unnamed DOGE team member sent an email to someone at the Department of Labor and another unnamed person at the Department of Homeland Security that included a file with Social Security data. The file is password protected and DOJ claims they can\u2019t access it to see what\u2019s inside. But it states they believe the file contains personal information \u201cderived from SSA systems of record, including names and addresses of approximately 1,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still another correction in the filing lays out instances when a DOGE member got access to call center information well after the court order forbidding that kind of access. And then there\u2019s the correction that points out DOGE members were sharing data with Cloudflare in a way that\u2019s not approved.<\/p>\n
Another correction details how DOGE member after DOGE member was rummaging through private data on Social Security employees. From the filing:<\/p>\n
None of that sounds good. But the most shocking revelation from the new court filing involves a shadowy group that apparently was trying to get access to Social Security data:<\/p>\n
\nHowever, SSA determined in its recent review that in March 2025, a political advocacy group contacted two members of SSA\u2019s DOGE Team with a request to analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired. The advocacy group\u2019s stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States. In connection with these communications, one of the DOGE team members signed a \u201cVoter Data Agreement,\u201d in his capacity as an SSA employee, with the advocacy group. He sent the executed agreement to the advocacy group on March 24, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s unclear which group may be involved. Making matters even worse, it sounds like the existence of this agreement was only accidentally discovered while looking at a completely different case.<\/p>\n
\nAt this time, there is no evidence that SSA employees outside of the involved members of the DOGE Team were aware of the communications with the advocacy group. Nor were they aware of the \u201cVoter Data Agreement.\u201d This agreement was not reviewed or approved through the agency\u2019s data exchange procedures. SSA first learned about this agreement during a review unrelated to this case in November 2025.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The two DOGE members involved have been referred to a special counsel over violations of the Hatch Act, but it\u2019s not clear whether anyone will ever pay the price for DOGE\u2019s gross mishandling of private information. Elon Musk certainly hasn\u2019t. He\u2019s still the wealthiest person in the world and getting richer by the day. He had a spectacular blow-out with Trump but they\u2019re palling around again, no doubt plotting how to fuck over more Americans.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n