DOJ Admits DOGE Staffers At Social Security Administration Broke Federal Protocols

In a stunning reversal that has reignited a firestorm over government transparency and data privacy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a court disclosure Friday admitting that members of the President’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) embedded at the Social Security Administration (SSA) bypassed federal protocols, accessed sensitive data without authorization, and coordinated with a partisan advocacy group.

The filing, submitted in ongoing litigation, confirms that DOGE staffers engaged in a “Voter Data Agreement” with an outside organization and utilized unapproved third-party servers to store and transmit the personal information of millions of Americans.

Bypassing the Guardrails

According to the court documents, the SSA determined that in early March 2025, two members of the agency’s DOGE team were contacted by a political advocacy group seeking assistance in analyzing state voter rolls. The group’s stated goal was to identify “voter fraud” and challenge election outcomes in several states.

The DOJ admitted that at least one DOGE staffer, acting in their capacity as a federal employee, signed a formal agreement with the group. This coordination occurred without the knowledge or approval of the SSA’s career leadership or its data exchange oversight boards. While the administration maintained that it has not yet found definitive proof that the data was successfully handed over to the group, the admission that such an agreement existed represents a significant breach of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty.

The “Shadow” Servers

The disclosure further details a “vulnerable cloud environment” and the use of unapproved servers to handle the most sensitive data in the U.S. government—the Numerical Identification System (NUMIDENT). This database contains the Social Security numbers, names, birth dates, and addresses of nearly every American.

The filing reveals that DOGE staffers used Cloudflare—a third-party service not authorized for Social Security data—to share encrypted, password-protected files. SSA’s Chief Information Office admitted it has been unable to access these files to determine their exact contents or whether the data still exists on those external servers.

“These actions constitute a gross mismanagement of authority and a substantial threat to public safety,”

stated a whistleblower complaint previously filed by Charles Borges, the SSA’s former Chief Data Officer.

Borges, who was sidelined after raising alarms about these practices, had warned that DOGE was operating a “shadow” IT infrastructure that lacked independent security monitoring, leaving the personal records of over 300 million people at risk of identity theft or foreign hacking.

Hunting for “Fraud”

The revelation of the “voter data agreement” connects the DOGE team’s efficiency mission to the administration’s broader efforts to challenge election integrity. Critics have long argued that the efficiency task force was a “fishing expedition” for political leverage.

The court filing indicates that DOGE personnel were actively trying to match SSA’s “death master file” and non-citizen records against state voter registration lists. Earlier in the year, billionaire Elon Musk and other administration officials claimed to have found “millions of dead people” receiving benefits—a claim that career SSA officials quickly debunked as a misunderstanding of how the agency codes its historical records.

Political and Legal Fallout

The DOJ has now referred at least two DOGE employees to the Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations. Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats and privacy advocates are calling for an immediate audit of all DOGE activities across the federal government.

“This is not about efficiency; it is about weaponizing the most private information of the American people for political gain,” said Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) in response to the filing. “To have unvetted staffers signing agreements with political groups while holding the keys to our Social Security data is an abhorrent violation of the public trust.”

As the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals prepares to rule on whether to reinstate an injunction against DOGE’s data access, the administration remains under intense pressure to account for exactly how much information was moved to outside servers and who, ultimately, was given the password to the encrypted files.

Sources & Links

• Democracy Docket: DOGE worked with political group to probe voter rolls, Trump admin admits
• The Washington Post: Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social Security data
• Government Accountability Project: Whistleblower claims DOGE compromised Social Security data
• Silicon Angle: Court filings raise questions over DOGE access to SSA data
• U.S. Senate (Committee on Homeland Security): Peters Report Finds DOGE Likely Violating Federal Privacy and Security Laws