Trump administration admits even more ways DOGE accessed sensitive personal data

"The admission came in a court filing last Friday, Jan. 16, that made numerous corrections to testimony given by top agency officials last year in a lawsuit alleging DOGE was illegally accessing Social Security data. In the filing, Justice Department lawyers representing the Social Security Administration wrote that two SSA DOGE employees were referred to a federal watchdog to determine if they violated a law barring government employees from using their job for political activity, known as the Hatch Act."

"The unnamed employees secretly conferred with a political advocacy group about a request to match Social Security data with state voter rolls to "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States," the filing said. It remains unclear whether any data actually went to this group."

"For much of the last year, staffers who were initially part of the Department of Government Efficiency effort improperly accessed and shared sensitive personal data on millions of Americans."

For much of the last year, staffers initially part of the Department of Government Efficiency improperly accessed and shared sensitive personal data on millions of Americans. The Trump administration cannot verify how much data is at risk, how it was used, or why consolidation was needed. The Social Security Administration disclosed that DOGE employees secretly and improperly shared sensitive SSA data and that two SSA DOGE employees were referred to a federal watchdog for potential Hatch Act violations. Those employees conferred with a political advocacy group about matching Social Security records with state voter rolls to "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States," although it remains unclear whether any data reached that group. SSA identified communications and data uses potentially outside agency policy and potentially noncompliant with a court order; team members circumvented IT rules and shared records on outside servers.

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