Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Getting Audited

What is Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—known as DOGE—really doing inside the most sensitive systems of the U.S. government?

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Why would someone with no federal experience and ties to
Elon Musk be granted access to the Treasury's payment systems?
And why are agencies like the Department of Labor and Social
Security Administration quietly preparing detailed logs and
security records for government auditors?
And why, more than a year after Donald Trump created the

(00:20):
Department of Government Efficiency, are so many insiders
sounding alarms about who is inside the nation's most secure
data systems and what they're doing with access now?
The Department of Government Efficiency DOGE was created
under Trump's administration with the stated mission of
streamlining bureaucracy in modernizing outdated federal

(00:43):
systems. And while that objective on its
face sounds like a technical improvement project, the
execution has triggered a wave of concern.
Federal employees are now grappling with the realization
that many of the people embeddedinside their agencies under the
DOGE banner are neither civil servants nor trained in the
protocols of federal cybersecurity.

(01:04):
Instead, they're often former employees of Elon Musk's private
ventures, such as X or Tesla, who have taken on public roles
with unprecedented access. Now, the audit now underway by
the Government Accountability Office seeks to determine
whether DOGE operatives have violated laws governing data
protection in privacy across a sprawling list of federal

(01:27):
departments. Among those under review are the
departments of Labor, Education,Health and Human Services,
Homeland Security, the Treasury and the Social Security
Administration. Now DOGE itself, formerly known
as the US Doge Service USDS, is also being examined.
GAO is requesting comprehensive logs, security protocols and

(01:49):
risk assessments from these agencies, many of which show
signs of scrambling to comply. The GA OS mission is not
administrative in nature. Its role is to independently
investigate government performance on behalf of
Congress. Now, this audit was initiated
following congressional concern.The Doge's actions might not
just be unorthodox, they could be completely illegal or

(02:14):
unconstitutional. The watchdog agency has also
asked departments to turn over documents related to system
access, internal security measures and any incidents
involving misuse of insensitive systems or data.
Now, these requests are precise and technical, indicating that
the GA OS review not just a surface level inquiry but a

(02:38):
forensic investigation against DOGE.
At the heart of the concern is the presence of DOGE personnel
inside systems that handle everything from tax records to
Social Security payments, and insome cases, these operatives
have reported attempted to mergesystems of data silos that were
intentionally designed to remainseparate.

(02:59):
Agency insiders have stated thatDOGE staff often have no clear
supervisory structure and have requested access that would
enable them to modify core system code, which is an action
that could interfere with government functions or expose
critical infrastructure to outside influence.
Not secure. And one of the clearest examples

(03:19):
of this tension emerged from theDepartment of Labor.
In confidential notes from an internal meeting held on March
18th, agency staff detailed the extent of DOGE integration into
their system. DOGE workers currently hold only
read access to sensitive data they send, including payroll and
grants. However, they had already asked
for broader privileges. The Department of Labor staff

(03:43):
responded by creating a buffer, asking DOGE operatives to
describe their goals so that regular agency employees could
execute any necessary actions ontheir behalf, rather than
letting them directly manipulatethe systems of the code
themselves. Of the level of scrutiny being
applied by the Gio is very unusual.
Agencies like the Department of Labor have been asked to present

(04:06):
not just security protocols, buteven the specific settings on
laptops issued to DOGE affiliates.
Logs tracking cybersecurity incidents, audit trails, and
data loss prevention efforts have all been requested.
And furthermore, agencies must provide documentation outlining
who has system access, what level of access they had,

(04:27):
whether it's read, write or execute, how access is granted,
and whether it was later modified.
GAO wants to know whether DOGE personnel are working remotely
or on site, whether they are using government issued hardware
or personal devices, and what safeguards are in place to
ensure confidentiality and also legal compliance.

(04:48):
Now this story matters to you because it calls into question
how government power is being administration and by whom.
The federal government holds massive troves of personal data
on you right now, from health records to financial filings.
Everything you do in its systemsare designed to shield that
information from tampering or unauthorized exposure.

(05:12):
Now, if private individuals without vetting or proper
oversight are granted access to manipulate these databases, it
erodes trust in the systems themselves, and it also erodes
trust in institutions that are meant to guard them.
People rely on these systems every single day.
Social Security, whether it's toreceive tax refunds, the IRS,

(05:35):
and also healthcare subsidies. Now, moreover, the audit raises
deeper concerns about accountability.
DOGE was established not throughtraditional legislative
channels, but via an executive order by President Donald Trump.
This has allowed it to operate with minimal transparency.
Even now, months into this audit, some DOGE operatives

(05:56):
reportedly do not know who is technically in charge of their
work. Without clear leadership or
oversight, the risk of error or abuse escalates, especially when
the people involved may not fully understand the systems
they were accessing. Now, one name repeatedly
associated with high level access is Marco Alez, a 25 year
old former engineer at X Elon, Elon Musk's social media

(06:20):
company. And according to reports and
internal records, Alez was givenright access to treasury
systems, which means he had fullpower to alter any code in the
treasury. How?
This access created the possibility of disrupting
government payments, including those authorized by Congress.

(06:41):
Treasury staff compare the situation to having unauthorized
users in the system with the capability to bring core
functions to a halt and being powerless to intervene against
this one person. Now, Leslie's access was
reportedly not confirmed to the Treasury, though he has also
been linked to both the Department of Labor and Social

(07:01):
Security Administration. However, due to ongoing
litigation, his access to SocialSecurity Administration systems
has been restricted by a court order, and while Les has not
commented publicly, internal records confirm his presence
across multiple agencies and hitat a wider network of Doge
affiliates working in parallel rules.

(07:23):
Now Of particular concern is theexecutive order issued by Trump
on March 20th, which directs federal agencies to begin
consolidating their data repositories under the pretext
of fighting waste and fraud. Now we all this may sound
efficient. Critics warn that it could
create an unregulated mega database of personal information

(07:45):
accessible to individuals with no clear accountability.
Now, DOGE operatives under this directive have started the
process of linking systems that were previously siloed for
privacy reasons. This change could expose
Americans private data to unnecessary risks, and
congressional concern has been growing since at least February.

(08:05):
In a letter dated February 6th, Virginia Representative Bobby
Scott described the situation asa constitutional emergency and
formally request the GAOGAO openan investigation.
Soon after, Massachusetts Representative Richard Neal sent
his own letter specifically naming the Treasury and Social

(08:26):
Security Administration as areasof concern.
Now, these formal inquiries helptrigger the audit that is now
expanding in scope. So in the weeks ahead, the GAO
is expected to meet directly with agency personnel and
observe DOGE activities in real time.
This is a scoop. The DOGE employees didn't know
about this, and this includes inspecting laptop

(08:48):
configurations, reviewing user activity logs, and confirming
whether proper data loss prevention tools are in place.
These steps will help determine whether DOGE access is being
monitored and controlled in linewith legal requirements now.
This story will continue to develop as more documents are
reviewed and more officials are questioned.

(09:11):
But for now, the GAO audit marksthe first major attempt to bring
transparency to Doge's operations.
If violations are uncovered, they could result in illegal
action, tighter regulations, or even dismantling parts of DOGE
all together. The audit is expected to

(09:32):
conclude in late spring, with findings to be made completely
public. And until then, agency staff,
elected officials and the publicremain in a state of unease,
waiting to learn just how deeplyDOGE has dug into the federal
data system and what consequences may follow.
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(09:54):
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(10:16):
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