Inside DOGE’s push to defy a court order and access Social Security data

Representatives of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have sought for weeks to get around a court order barring their access to sensitive data and internal systems at the Social Security Administration, prompting career staff to repeatedly resist their efforts, according to a half dozen people familiar with the DOGE team’s actions and records obtained by the Washington Post.

The battle inside the agency led the Justice Department to intervene to deny DOGE access to the data, even as the Trump administration installed and promoted DOGE-friendly leaders to dramatically cut back services at Social Security. It involved staff, from rank-and-file employees to senior leaders, including acting commissioner Leland Dudek, who was appointed to his position after displaying public loyalty to DOGE. And it eventually helped lead to the physical removal last week of a top career executive, who had been warned he would be fired if he kept refusing to let DOGE into Social Security’s systems.

At the same time, Dudek mistakenly let one of the DOGE representatives into a Social Security database last week, violating the court order, according to a person familiar with events who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. That error led a federal judge to summon Dudek for a hearing Tuesday at federal court in Baltimore, but the Trump administration said in a filing late Monday that he would no longer appear.

Dudek declined to comment. The Social Security press office did not respond to a request for comment.

As soon as DOGE representatives arrived at Social Security earlier this year, they began trying to get inside the agency’s troves of sensitive personal data, which include information on the work, pay history, residences and identities of more than 70 million Americans who receive benefits. The DOGE hunt for data forced the departure of the agency’s previous acting commissioner, who clashed with the team over the request and whose removal led to Dudek’s elevation. DOGE – or the Department of Government Efficiency, which is not a Cabinet-level agency – ultimately gained access to the data.

That spurred two labor unions and an advocacy group to file a lawsuit over DOGE’s access, arguing that it posed a major risk to their members. In mid-March, Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order barring DOGE and its affiliates from working with Social Security data. In response, Dudek blasted the order as overly broad and warned that, to satisfy it, he would have to deny all of his employees access to Social Security’s systems, effectively shutting down the agency.

Both Hollander and the White House told Dudek he was “out of line,” he said, and he promised to keep Social Security running.

As the legal back-and-forth played out publicly – terrifying retirees who worried their benefits might stop – an internal conflict was growing inside Social Security.

At first, officials obeyed the courts.

Immediately after Hollander issued her order, the agency cut off DOGE staffers from all systems, according to employees and records obtained by the Post. The compliance came at the direction of Michael Russo, then the chief information officer, who was recommended for the job by Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the permanent leader of Social Security.

But Russo’s swift action did not go over well with the Trump administration. He was reassigned in late March to a “senior adviser” position focused on “IT Modernization” in the office of the commissioner, according to a memo obtained by the Post. He was replaced as chief information officer by Scott Coulter, a New York-based hedge fund manager and a member of Musk’s DOGE team, according to the memo and court filings.

Russo did not respond to a request for comment. Coulter has previously declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Mark Steffensen – another Trump appointee and DOGE ally serving as acting general counsel – was tasked with determining whether DOGE representatives should be allowed to access Social Security data. Steffensen, a former top financial executive, had assumed his role as a senior adviser at Social Security at Bisignano’s recommendation on Feb. 24, according to another memo obtained by the Post.

Steffensen did not respond to a request for comment.

Soon, Steffensen was fighting with career lawyers at Social Security.

Attorneys in the office of general counsel wanted to draft agencywide guidance that would comply with the judge’s order, setting strict rules for how staff could interact with DOGE representatives, according to a person briefed on the events. But Steffensen initially wanted the lawyers to issue a memo giving DOGE access to Social Security data, the person said.

None of the career employees would agree to Steffensen’s plan, the person said. So he began circumventing the lawyers by telling DOGE representatives to keep working on their projects anyway, according to the person and records obtained by the Post.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration repeatedly promoted Steffensen, giving him more authority. In rapid succession, he was elevated to acting deputy commissioner for legal and policy and acting general counsel, then named as chair of the Executive Resources Board, according to additional memos obtained by the Post.

At the same time, some DOGE staffers were also trying to get around the court order on their own. DOGE team members asked staff to let them back inside the agency’s databases, citing Steffensen’s approval of the idea, according to two people and records obtained by the Post.

In another division of Social Security, those requests rose all the way to Greg Pearre, a veteran senior executive who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, according to a person familiar with what transpired. Despite building pressure, Pearre refused to let DOGE inside an agency dataset, the person said. Sometime last month, according to the person, Pearre’s resistance prompted a warning from his boss: Keep saying no, and you’ll be fired.

Pearre was placed on administrative leave last Thursday, the Post reported, and was marched out of Social Security’s Maryland headquarters by security guards. His resistance to DOGE had proved problematic – but the final straw was Pearre’s criticism of a Trump administration move to label 6,000 living immigrants as dead in a Social Security database, in a bid to make them leave the country. On Friday, an email went to Pearre’s former colleagues saying he was “on assignment outside” that office, with no further details, a message obtained by the Post said.

Near the end of March, the office of general counsel issued its guidance on DOGE’s data access at Social Security, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Post. The final version appeared to align with career lawyers’ viewpoint. It said that “DOGE team members are restricted … from accessing, viewing or otherwise working with” any “information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity,” including “any nonpublic datasets that are aggregated or deidentified but could be used to identify a person.”

DOGE team members were defined as “anyone (e.g., employees, contractors, special government employees, or consultants) working on the DOGE agenda and anyone, directly or indirectly, working with or being directed by DOGE,” the memo stated.

In early April, lawyers with the Justice Department were called in to give their opinion, too, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Department lawyers told Steffensen that under no circumstances should DOGE be allowed inside the agency’s data and that Social Security must follow the judge’s order, one of the people said.

But DOGE kept up the pressure and, according to current and former officials, tried unsuccessfully to get Steffensen fired for failing to get them access. Members of the DOGE team also sought an exemption from the judge for several projects, the officials said. It is unclear if the judge agreed.

In recent weeks, Social Security hired a new DOGE team member, but Dudek – not realizing this staffer was a member of the DOGE team – granted him access to some of the agency’s data, violating the judge’s order, according to records and a person familiar with the matter.

Once Dudek realized his mistake, he removed the DOGE staffer from the agency’s systems, the person said.