Democrats demand probe into DOGE’s alleged mishandling of personal data

Democrats are calling connected Treasury Department and General Services Administration watchdogs to analyse a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee’s entree to delicate data.

In a missive to Deputy Inspectors General Loren Sciurba and Robert Erickson, Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), and Shontel Brown (D-OH) accidental the probe should code DOGE staffer Marko Elez’s “unauthorized and perchance amerciable disclosure” of a spreadsheet containing idiosyncratic accusation portion Elez was secretly rifling done delicate authorities systems.

Earlier this year, reports emerged that the 25-year-old Elez was granted work and constitute entree to Treasury Department outgo systems. Court filings aboriginal revealed the grade of his entree and claimed that Elez broke Treasury policy by sending an worker spreadsheet to members of the Trump administration. Elez resigned from his DOGE role successful February aft reporters recovered racist posts linked to his societal media account; however, DOGE caput Elon Musk announced Elez would beryllium reinstated, and court filings suggest helium present works astatine the Department of Labor.

In their letter, the representatives accidental Elez skirted information regulations and “likely” violated the Privacy Act of 1974, a instrumentality that prevents agencies from disclosing idiosyncratic accusation to 3rd parties without an individual’s consent. The missive adds that if Elez did interruption the instrumentality and harmed the individuals listed connected the spreadsheet, they “may person grounds to question monetary damages from the government.”

Treasury Deputy Inspector General Sciurba has already opened an investigation into DOGE’s entree to the agency’s outgo systems, but this probe would specifically absorption connected Elez’s actions.

Reps. Trahan, DelBene, and Brown are asking the lawman inspectors wide to find retired however galore radical had their idiosyncratic accusation exposed connected the spreadsheet, arsenic good arsenic whether Elez obtained written consent from each idiosyncratic earlier sending it to Trump medication officials. They besides privation to cognize wherefore Elez was granted entree to Treasury Department systems portion his information clearance process was inactive underway and however the Trump medication officials interacted with the spreadsheet they received.

As DOGE continues to slash and pain its mode done authorities agencies, lawmakers are scrambling to enactment a halt to the chaos. Last week, a justice granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but it’s not wide however agelong it volition last. A Politico report has besides suggested that DOGE person Musk volition measurement down from his role, which Musk called “fake news.”