https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/22/social-security-trump-doge-musk/

No paywall link

https://archive.li/f12xE

Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk's cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner, according to three current or former government officials with knowledge of the events.

The agency's leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them, was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk's U.S. DOGE Service, according to the three, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an internal matter.

It's not clear what data Dudek shared, but his actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials, including attorneys in the general counsel's office, also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency's personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires.

The Social Security Administration, based in Woodlawn, Maryland, is the government's central hub for Americans' most sensitive personal and financial information and the country's largest benefit-paying entity. Social Security also keeps data on individuals who interact with many other federal agencies, including the IRS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agriculture Department, as well as state unemployment offices.

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