DOGE Staffer Reportedly Broke Treasury Data-Sharing Rules
Federal officials say a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer breached Treasury data-sharing policies.
Marko Elez violated the Treasury Department’s rules when he transmitted a spreadsheet containing personal data to others in the Trump administration, Bloomberg News reported Friday (March 14), citing a court filing.
Elez had been fired from his role monitoring Treasury payments after some of his racist social media posts were unearthed, but has since been rehired by DOGE at the Social Security Administration.
According to Bloomberg, the information about the data exchange came up during a forensic analysis by the Treasury as part of a lawsuit brought by New York and other state attorneys general attempting to prevent DOGE from accessing sensitive payment information.
The report noted that Elez’s violation raises concerns about DOGE’s data security practices at the Treasury Department and other agencies where it is conducting cost-cutting measures.
Another court filing earlier in the week had argued that disruptions to the Treasury payments systems “could have catastrophic consequences,” including risking federal default on obligations or hindering social support payments to millions of Americans.
“If there’s one phrase that dominates discussions about the Treasury’s role in the nation’s finances, it’s ‘full faith and credit,’” Amias Gerety, partner at QED Investors and a former Treasury official under the Obama administration, told PYMNTS last month.
“The full faith and credit of the U.S. government should not be impeached. It’s literally in the [Constitution]. If you’re a bank, if you’re an investor, if you’re a government contractor, if you’re a retiree receiving Social Security — you have to ask, will my payments go through? That uncertainty should be felt around the world.”
He added that DOGE had brought the country into “uncharted territory,” something banks, larger ones especially, do not like.
“If you think about this from the perspective of the very large banks that act as the Treasury’s fiscal agents, these banks make payments on behalf of the government,” Gerety said. “If that system is compromised, what do they do? If the government stops paying them for their services, they can’t just continue making payments for free.”
Meanwhile, DOGE last week was ordered to turn over a variety of records and answer questions about its work at cutting government spending. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has given the department until April 2 to comply with her ruling.
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