A handful of Democratic states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Friday for granting Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency access to the Treasury’s payment systems. This is just hours after Musk rehired a senior employee who had quit due to racist posts, the most recent in a series of scandals involving Musk’s influential group.
Timetable
- Feb. 7, 8:00 p.m. ESTAbout 19 Democratic state attorneys general are now suing Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for letting DOGE into government payment systems, claiming that the action is improper, jeopardizes personal data, and may allow DOGE to unconstitutionally cut spending that Congress has approved.
- Feb. 7, 3:13 p.m. EST”Anything less would be anti-humanity,” Musk said on X as part of a thread in which he discussed Marko Elez, a DOGE employee who Thursday resigned after the Wall Street Journal uncovered a number of highly offensive comments made by the self-described “racist” (hours earlier, he polled his X followers on whether Elez should be brought back).
- Vance’s endorsement of the return proved the news for the 25-year-old Elez.
- 2:55 p.m. EST, Feb. 7 Forbes digs up several disturbing social media posts from 25-year-old DOGE ambassador Gavin Kliger, including a tweet in which he called former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “retarded” and a slew of anti-immigration posts.
- Feb. 7, 2:41 p.m. ESTBloomberg reports that Edward Coristine is a 19-year-old DOGE agent who was fired from his previous internship for allegedly leaking proprietary firm information to a competitor.
- Following revelations by The Wall Street Journal on his previous behavior on social media, Elez resigned, while Vance posted a message at 11:26 a.m. EST on February 7 with the words to “bring [Elez] back.” White House officials later confirmed to Forbes that Elez resigned but explained nothing about leaving.
- “I do not believe a kid’s life should be destroyed by foolish behavior on social media, although of course I disagreed with some of what Elez posted,” Vance said.
- Vance, who is married to Usha Vance, whose parents are Indian immigrants, said he “obviously disagree[s] with some of Elez’s posts,” including one that called for the “normalization of Indian hate.”
- At 9:14 a.m. EST on February 7, Musk appears to measure public opinion about Elez by posting a poll on his X social media platform asking if the administration should “bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym”; over 80% of respondents agreed.
- In addition to his stated racism, his advocacy for “eugenic immigration policy,” and his railing against interracial marriage, Musk deemed the posts “inappropriate,” even though he did not reference Elez specifically.
- When one X user asked Musk to “have a talk about the racist stuff,” Musk responded with “True.” Not cool.
- Feb. 6, 8:09 p.m. ESTOne of the two Democrats on the 29-member DOGE panel, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., announced her departure from the caucus in a statement that was harshly critical of “unelected billionaire Elon Musk.”
- Hoyle blasted DOGE’s “corrupt” access to Treasury Department payments data and use of “intimidation tactics to terrorize” government employees, accusing Musk and his “henchmen” of
- plotting “to burn down the government—and the law—to line his own pockets and rip off Americans across the country who depend on government services to live with dignity.”
- 4 p.m. EST, Feb. 6: The White House informed The Wall Street Journal that Elez, one of the two main DOGE emissaries embedded in the Treasury Department, had resigned from the Musk-led organization after the publication revealed Elez’s connections to a since-deleted X account that had racist posts advocating for “eugenic immigration policy” and “normalizing Indian hate.”
- According to the Journal, Elez, 25, was formerly employed by SpaceX and Musk’s X.
- Elez’s resignation was confirmed to Forbes by a White House official, who would not comment on the reasons behind his departure.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at 2 p.m. EST on February 6 that DOGE is not “tinkering” with the government payment systems that the agency has access to and that Musk’s agency is conducting an “operational review” of government payments rather
than an “ideological review” (Musk’s comments have often strayed into the latter, referring to the U.S. Agency for International Development as a “criminal organization”).
- Bessent continued, “Elon and I are totally on the same page when it comes to reducing waste and enhancing accountability and transparency for the American people.”
- February 6 The Washington Post reported, based on two unnamed people, that DOGE employees are sifting through Education Department data accessed through Microsoft’s Azure service and which contains “personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data,” in an effort to find ways the government can save money across departments. The DOGE should find some savings, at least; a department spokesperson told the Post they’re looking for efficiencies and that “there’s nothing inappropriate or nefarious.”.
- Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved a deal on 6 February for two Musk peers, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who act as special employees of the U.S. Government, to obtain Treasury
- Department records “as required” in readable-only format only.
- This is a temporary interlocutory order set to last until Kollar-Kotelly makes a final ruling in this case filed by unions and charities that requested to limit access to the Treasury Department’s classified financial information by DOGE.
- Feb. 6, 8:40 a.m. ESTThe Washington Post reported Thursday, citing four anonymous U.S. officials, that DOGE employees have access to employee data from the Office of Personnel Management, which is basically the federal government’s human resources arm. The data includes Social Security numbers, addresses, and demographics, and DOGE employees have the ability to edit employee records (there is no proof DOGE staff have edited any records).
- Feb. 5 After a lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers agreed Wednesday to a plan that would limit access to the important Treasury payment system by DOGE, allowing two Musk colleagues only “read-only” access.
- On February 5, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said, in a statement made public that two senior agency veterans are teaming up with DOGE, and they “are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting President Trump’s goals.”
- February 5, 12:01 p.m. EST”This is where the deep pocket fraud takes place,” Musk said in a quote-tweeted message on X, formerly known as Twitter, that included a screenshot of the article by The Wall Street Journal on DOGE being at Medicare.
- According to sources familiar with the situation who spoke with Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, DOGE representatives had access to their payment and contracting systems; the DOGE team was on site at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at 11 a.m. EST February 5 to search for fraud or waste.
- Feb. 4, 5:40 p.m. ESTIn an effort to review efficiency, Treasury wrote that it is “committed to safeguarding the integrity and security of the system” and that the “Fiscal Service is confident those protections are robust and effective.” The letter also noted that Treasury employee Tom Krause, who is associated with DOGE, has “read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems.”.
- The Government Accountability Office was directed to examine Bessent’s “decision to grant access to sensitive government payment systems to Elon Musk and other” DOGE employees at 4 p.m. EST on February 4. The Senators, including D-Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren and D-Ore. Ron Wyden, specifically asked the Government Accountability Office to determine if there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect “economic and national security and Americans’ privacy,” and whether there is no conflict of interest between the government employee and Musk.
- Senate Democrats aired their concerns about Musk getting access to the federal payments system during a press conference on February 3, at 3:45 p.m. EST. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that Musk is “hijacking our nation’s most sensitive financial systems and its checkbook,” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated that “an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.”
- Feb. 3: The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions sued the Treasury Department in an effort to curtail DOGE’s access to Treasury data.
- Feb. 1: The New York Times and the Associated Press reported that Bessent provided DOGE access to the private Treasury data, giving Musk a “potent tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.”
