Treasury Dept. gives Elon Musk's team access to federal payment system: Sources
The Treasury Department has given Elon Musk and representatives of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team access to the vast federal payment system responsible for handling trillions of dollars in government expenditures, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The payment system -- which is essentially a checkbook for the entire federal government -- is a closely held operation run by career officials, with a limited number of people authorized to access the information given it contains sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans.
Senate Democrats in a fiery news conference on Monday said they were "pulling the fire alarm" to warn about the dangers posed by DOGE and Elon Musk's access to Treasury's payments system.
"Before our very eyes, an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government," Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, warned that Musk could use the access to target political enemies of business rivals.
"An unelected unaccountable billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China and an industry ax to grind against perceived enemies is hijacking our nation's most sensitive financial systems and its checkbook," Murray said.
Democrats also warned of the danger that Musk's access to the payment system could pose to the data of billions of Americans.
"Donald Trump basically handed DOGE the Social Security data of virtually every American citizen," Schumer said. "Donald Trump gave DOGE access to America's personal tax refund data. He gave DOGE access to peoples Medicare and Medicaid benefits, disability payment data, veteran benefit data."
Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said people are "creeped out" by the data access.
"Musk has access to personal information of hundreds of millions of American bank accounts, tax data, Social Security numbers, home addresses. People are creeped out," Wyden said. "The Musk hatchet brigade has infiltrated a gold mine of data that every foreign spy and every corrupt actor would love to see. It is a prescription for nightmares."
The demand for access to the payment system reportedly caused such a rift inside the Treasury Department that the career official who previously oversaw it, David Lebryk, was placed on administrative leave last week after he resisted granting Musk and his government efficiency team access to the database.
On Friday, Lebryk told colleagues at the department he would be retiring, sources told ABC News.
If Musk or his team were to attempt to block these payments, it would likely face legal challenges given the money is approved by Congress.
Sources said that if Musk or his representatives were to request that changes be made to the system, such requests would be subject to an internal review process by Treasury Department officials.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said that any "politically-motivated meddling" in the payment systems "risks severe damage to our country and the economy."
"To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs," Wyden wrote in a Friday evening letter.
"I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, missioncritical systems," Wyden wrote.
Spokespeople for DOGE, the White House and Treasury didn't respond to a request for comment.
