Elon Musk’s DOGE Team Seizes Control of U.S. Treasury Payment System

WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers and government watchdog groups are raising alarms after reports emerged that Elon Musk‘s DOGE team has taken control of the U.S. Treasury Department‘s payment system, which handles trillions of dollars annually, including Social Security and Medicare benefits. The unprecedented move has sparked fears of a massive privacy and security breach.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., revealed in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY that Musk’s DOGE operatives, described as young computer programmers, gained access to the Treasury’s payment system over the weekend. Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the team allegedly pressured Treasury officials, including sidelining David Lebryk, a key figure in managing the department’s payment operations.

“We got on it, and what is clear now is that unqualified and unaccountable people have seized control of the flow of taxpayer funds and a trove of very sensitive data,” Wyden said. “They are seizing the tools they need for a coup.”

The payment system, traditionally managed by non-political civil servants, processes critical government payments, including tax credits and benefits for millions of Americans. Wyden’s staff confirmed through whistleblowers that the DOGE team accessed personal information, including bank accounts, Social Security numbers, and home addresses.

Musk, who serves as an unpaid advisor to President Trump, defended his team’s actions in a Feb. 2 post on X, the social media platform he owns. He claimed that Treasury officials were approving fraudulent payments and that his team was working to stop the practice. “Career Treasury officials are approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress,” Musk wrote. “This needs to stop NOW!”

However, a Democratic staff official on the Senate Finance Committee disputed Musk’s claims, stating that the Treasury’s payment system is essentially the government’s checkbook for payments already approved by Congress. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Musk’s team misunderstood the system’s function.

Wyden and other Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have called for immediate action to revoke DOGE’s access to the Treasury system. Warren described the situation as “extraordinarily dangerous” and warned of potential global financial repercussions if the payment system is mismanaged.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a legal watchdog group, is considering legal action to challenge DOGE’s access to the Treasury and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) systems. John Davisson, EPIC’s director of litigation, called the move “an extremely irregular, unprecedented act of seizing critical systems.”

Meanwhile, former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger urged Congress to investigate the situation directly. “Send members of Congress to go into the building and investigate what these people are doing,” Kinzinger said in a video posted on X. “Dare them to stop you because they can’t.”

As the controversy unfolds, federal employee unions have filed lawsuits to block DOGE’s access to the Treasury’s payment database, citing unprecedented risks to privacy and national security.