How’s What To Know About Elon Musk’s DOGE: Democratic States Sue Trump For Letting DOGE Into Treasury System

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Topline

Elon Musk re-hired a high-ranking worker who resigned over prejudiced posts, the latest in a cluster of controversy surrounding Musk’s strong organization, on Friday after a handful of Democratic says sued President Donald Trump for giving him access to the Treasury’s settlement systems.

Timeline

8: 00 p. m. EST, Feb. 7Some 19 Democratic state attorneys-general are suing Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for letting DOGE access the government’s payment systems, alleging the walk violates the law, endangers personal information and may open the door to Expand unconstitutionally slashing spending that’s already been greenlit by Congress.

3: 13 p. m. EST, Feb. 7Marko Elez—a DOGE staffer who resigned Thursday after the Wall Street Journal uncovered numerous offensive comments from the self-proclaimed “racist” —is coming back to work for the agency, Musk , commenting,” To err is human, to forgive divine” ( hours earlier, he on whether Elez should return ).

Musk’s news on the 25-year-old Elez was in response to Vance’s support of the profit.

2: 55 p. m. EST, Feb. 7Forbes a number of dangerous social media posts by 25-year-old DOGE ambassador Gavin Kliger, including one calling former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “retarded” and a myriad of anti-immigration content.

2: 41 p. m. EST, Feb. 7Bloomberg 19-year-0ld DOGE representative Edward Coristine was fired from a previous apprenticeship for leaking sensitive company information to a company.

11: 26 a. m. EST, Feb. 7Vance to “bring] Elez ] back”, referring to Elez, who resigned after The Wall Street Journal on his prior social media activity ( a White House official confirmed to Forbes that Elez resigned, but did not comment on the reason for his departure ).

” I clearly disagree with some of Elez’s articles, but I don’t think ridiculous social media activity may destroy a girl’s life”, explained Vance.

Vance said he “obviously disagree]s ] with some of Elez’s posts”, which included a call to “normalize Indian hate” ( Vance’s wife Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants ).

More than 80 % of respondents voted in favor of Elez’s return on his X social media site at 9:14 a.m. EST on February 7, 2007.

Musk, who did not reference Elez by name, whitewashed the content as “inappropriate”, though Elez self-identified as “racist”, supported “eugenic immigration policy” and slammed interracial marriage.

” True,” Musk to an X user’s request to “have a talk to about the racist stuff.” Never cool”.

8: 09 p. m. EST, Feb. 6Rep. One of the two Political members on the 29-person DOGE section, Val Hoyle, D-Ore., made the announcement to step down from the conference in a statement that was vile toward “unelected billionaire Elon Musk.”

Musk and his “lackeys” are set on “burning down the government—and the law—to line his own hands and pull off Americans across the country who depend on government solutions to live with dignity”, according to Hoyle, who slammed DOGE’s” crooked” access to Treasury Department payments data and the use of “intimidation tactics to terrify” government workers.

4 p. m. EST, Feb. 6Elez, one of the two primary DOGE emissaries embedded in the Treasury Department, resigned from the Musk-led agency, the White House The Wall Street Journal, after the publication uncovered Elez’s ties to a since-deleted X account with racist posts including calling for “eugenic immigration policy” and to “normalize Indian hate”.

The 25-year-old Elez previously worked for Musk’s X and SpaceX, according to the Journal.

A representative from the White House declined to comment on Elez’s exit’s circumstances and confirmed his resignation to Forbes.

2 p. m. EST, Feb. 6Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Bloomberg DOGE is not “tinkering” with the government payment systems the agency has access to, and Musk’s agency is conducting an “operational review” of government payments, not an “ideological review” ( Musk’s statements have often veered toward the latter, the U. S. Agency for International Development a” criminal organization”. )

Bessent continued,” Elon and I are completely in line with each other in terms of reducing waste and increasing accountability and transparency for the American people.”

Feb. 6People with ties to DOGE are using AI—accessed via Microsoft’s Azure service—to sort through Education Department data with “personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data” while they look for ways to save the government money across departments, The reported, citing two unnamed people ( a department spokesperson told the Post they’re looking for efficiencies, and there’s “nothing inappropriate or nefarious” ).

Feb. 6Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved an that grants Tom Krause and Marko Elez—two Musk associates working as special government employees—the ability to see Treasury Department data” as needed” on a read-only basis.

The agreement is a temporary fix that will be in place until Kollar-Kotelly renders a new opinion on the brought by nonprofits and unions to restrain DOGE’s right to access the Treasury Department’s private financial data.

8: 40 a. m. EST, Feb. 6DOGE workers have access to employee data from the Office of Personnel Management, essentially the federal government’s human resources arm, The Washington Post Thursday, citing four anonymous U. S. officials—the data includes addresses, demographics and Social Security numbers, and DOGE’s access includes the ability to edit employee records ( there’s no evidence DOGE staff have edited any records ).

Following a lawsuit, two Musk associates are now able to have “read-only” access to the crucial Treasury payment system. On Wednesday, February 5Justice Department lawyers agreed to a proposal that would limit DOGE’s access to the critical Treasury payment system.

Feb. 5: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a about its cooperation with DOGE, stating that two senior agency veterans are” taking a thoughtful look” at potential uses of resources to better and more efficiently use them in accordance with President Trump’s objectives.

12: 01 p. m. EST, Feb. 5Musk on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a screenshot of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on DOGE being at Medicare and said,” Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening”.

11 a.m. EST on February 5DOGE team members were on site at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to look for fraud or waste, according to and , citing a source with knowledge who claimed DOGE representatives had access to payment and contracting systems.

5: 40 p. m. EST, Feb. 4The Treasury sent a to Congress stating it is” committed to safeguarding the integrity and security of the system” and the” Fiscal Service is confident those protections are robust and effective”, adding that Tom Krause, who is affiliated with DOGE but is a Treasury employee, has “read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems” in an effort to review efficiency.

4 p. m. EST, Feb. 4Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that the government accountability office look into Bessent’s “decision to grant access to sensitive government payment systems to Elon Musk and other” DOGE employees. They were specifically asked to identify if there are guardrails in place to ensure there are no conflicts of interest with Musk.

3: 45 p. m EST, Feb. 3Senate Democrats held a news conference at which they about Musk getting access to the federal payment system, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N. Y., saying” an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., saying Musk was “hijacking our nation’s most sensitive financial systems and its checkbook”.

Feb. 3 The Treasury Department was sued by the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions in an effort to limit DOGE’s access to Treasury data.

Feb. 1The and reported that Bessent gave DOGE access to the sensitive Treasury data, giving Musk a “powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending,” according to the Times.

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What Is Doge?

Before Trump was elected, Musk and Trump both suggested creating DOGE, and shortly after that, Trump announced he would create it and have Musk lead it. After he won the election, Trump appointed Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the commission and advised them to” slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies”. DOGE was officially created via an on Trump’s first day in office that restructured an existing entity, the U. S. Digital Service, to be the U. S. DOGE Service. The Congressional Research Service claims that many members of the team have been designated as” special government employees” despite the fact that it is not a brand-new federal agency or department.

What Standing Do Doge Have?

The DOGE’s executive order defines its authority in a lack of clarity. Per the order, the role of it is” to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”. According to the order, the DOGE administrator will collaborate with agency heads to improve how agencies collaborate with one another and gather data. Apparently, DOGE officials have been able to access sensitive information and data on demand.

Does Elon Musk Work For The Government?

Musk is a” “. Any employee who is expected to work for the federal government for up to 130 days is prohibited from engaging in political activity while on duty or participating in matters that might have financial conflicts of interest. Most rules and guidelines that apply to federal employees are applicable to the role of a , but they can be “less restrictive” because the position is only temporary. Musk is alleged to not receive compensation for his work at the White House.

Who Is Working For Doge?

It’s unclear who works for DOGE. On Nov. 14, 2024, DOGE’s account on X people to direct message the account with their resumes if they were” super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting”. According to a report in on February 2, six engineers working for DOGE between the ages of 19 and 24 had connections to billionaire Peter Thiel or other Musk companies. Katie Drummond, ‘s global editorial director, “it’s a little bit difficult to ascertain exactly what they are doing”, but was able to determine they are “working at the behest of Musk… on a number of engineering related tasks”. However, eight Senate Democrats wrote to Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, in a asking for more information about what DOGE is doing, that” no information has been made available to Congress or the general public as regards who has been formally hired under DOGE.”

What Divisions Does Doge Work For?

DOGE has appeared to so far do most of its work with the , which Musk has said—without evidence—is “incredibly politically partisan” and a “radical-left political psy op”. Since Musk started talking about on Monday, the organization has placed direct hire employees on administrative leave from all over the world with few exceptions, and some employees have been seen clearing out their desks. Beyond that, on Jan. 24 that in its first 80 hours of operating, it canceled “approx$ 420M of current/impending contracts” and two leases while focusing “mainly on DEI contracts and unoccupied buildings”. On Thursday, reported DOGE was analyzing the Education Department’s spending using artificial intelligence. Musk reportedly suggested the government should shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was ordered to halt its work earlier this week, according to , and it is suspected that he was involved in the Office of Personnel Management’s to all federal employees.

What Are Democrats Doing To End Doge?

On Tuesday, more than 1, 000 protesters gathered outside the Treasury building in Washington, D. C., to protest DOGE’s actions, and more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers spoke at the gathering, the reported. Democrats also teased the” Stop the Steal” Act on Tuesday, which House Minority Leader Hakeep Jeffries, D-N. Y., would “prevent]DOGE’s ] unlawful access from taking place”. Democrats attempted to subpoena Musk on Wednesday to obtain more information about his actions and DOGE’s work, but congressional Republicans blocked the subpoena, according to . The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., Musk’s role is “puzzling” for many people, adding:” Who is this unelected billionaire that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement and have sweeping changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight or concurrence”? Democrats have limited power in opposing DOGE, or Trump’s actions more broadly, though, as Republicans control the House and Senate.

Further Reading

Unions File a lawsuit to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE from obtaining Treasury Department data ( Forbes ).

Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System ( New York Times )

The Medicare and Medicaid Administration CMS ( Bloomberg ) DOGE Team’s Elon Musk is suspected of fraud.

What Is Elon Musk’s Role, Exactly? White House Calls Him ‘ Special Government Employee’— Here’s What That Means ( Forbes )

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