A top Treasury official is reportedly concerned that allowing employees from Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency access to the department’s payments system could endanger American spies abroad.
According to The Washington Post, which cites “five people with knowledge of the matter,” the official raised their fears about the threat to U.S. spies in a memo sent to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Newsweek contacted the Treasury Department and CIA for comment on Saturday via email and online inquiry form respectively outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
Following President Donald Trump‘s inauguration on January 20, his close political ally, technology billionaire Elon Musk, was placed in charge of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been tasked with slashing waste from federal spending.
On January 31, Bessent approved a request for DOGE employees to be given access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, which contains trillions of dollars’ worth of transactions, including Social Security checks and tax refunds. However, access was restricted to two Treasury Department employees affiliated with DOGE, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, following a legal challenge brought by two unions and an advocacy group. This access was also classed as read only.
If the Treasury official is correct, and DOGE access to their payment system risks exposing American spies abroad, it represents a clear security threat to the United States. However, critics will likely see this as an excuse for the federal bureaucracy, which they dub the “deep state,” to restrict scrutiny of its work.
What To Know
Citing five informed parties, The Washington Post reported that last week, a high-ranking Treasury official said in a memo to Bessent that they fear DOGE access to the department’s payment system could allow American spies to be identified, potentially placing them in danger.
The newspaper also said that the official included suggestions to “mitigate risks” in their memo, and that these had been approved by Bessent.
According to the memo, even limited “read only” access to the Treasury payment system from the DOGE team “poses an unprecedented insider threat risk.” It added: “If DOGE members have any access to payment systems, we recommend suspending that access immediately and conducting a comprehensive review of all actions they may have taken on these systems.”
The Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Services is responsible for managing payments to Department of Defense contractors and human intelligence sources, or spies, abroad. Whilst The Washington Post reports efforts are made to disguise the latter payments, there are still fears they could be identified by people with the requisite know-how.
Friday saw the appointment of Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive with links to DOGE, as fiscal assistant secretary of the Treasury, giving him oversight over department payment systems. His predecessor, career civil servant David A. Lebryk, resigned in response to Trump administration demands to suspend foreign aid payments which he believed were illegal.
On Saturday, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction banning DOGE from accessing Treasury payments records that contain sensitive personal information such as bank account and Social Security numbers. A hearing is due to take place on February 14.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to The Washington Post, a former federal official said: “There are reasons we don’t let just anyone peer into the fiscal machinery.
“Our adversaries would love to get to the headwaters of the money flows so that they can try to trace out who is receiving payments.”
Addressing reporters in the Capitol, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “Why do Elon Musk and his minions need access to the names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates and bank account information of millions of Americans?
“Why does he need that information? What are they doing with it? And why aren’t House Republicans stopping them?”
What Happens Next
A hearing is scheduled to take place on February 14 where the legality of Musk’s DOGE team accessing Treasury payment records will be discussed. If there are legitimate concerns about such access uncovering American spies abroad, the Trump administration will come under stronger pressure to place tighter limits on DOGE, though the department’s supporters will likely see this as an attempt by the deep state to shutdown scrutiny.
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