Social Security information had been exploited by DOGE staff, according to a whistleblower in August.
Following the Trump administration’s admission in court documents that the Department of Government Efficiency shared Social Security data on an unapproved private server, two Democratic congressmen are demanding a criminal inquiry into the organization.
In a court complaint on January 16, the Social Security Administration claimed that DOGE employees provided private information on roughly 1,000 Americans to Elon Musk’s staff and attempted to give sensitive personal records to an unidentified advocacy group aiming to “overturn election results”.
In a joint statement, Democrats John Larson of the House Social Security Subcommittee and Richard Neal of the Ways and Means Committee said, “The ‘DOGE’ appointees involved in this scheme – who were never brought before Congress for approval or even publicly identified – must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for these abhorrent violations of the public trust.”
“Elon Musk and his ‘DOGE’ refused to testify before Congress because they think they are above the law. Larson and Neal stated, “Republicans have thwarted every attempt to hold this administration responsible by voting down our resolutions requiring documents and even altering House Rules to protect ‘DOGE’ from accountability and avoid having to take another vote on the matter.”
The request for a criminal probe comes after the Social Security Administration filed a court document detailing how DOGE employees violated the agency’s security standards in March 2025 by using the third-party cloud service Cloudflare.
“Until its current investigation, SSA was unaware that members of the DOGE team were utilizing Cloudflare throughout this time. According to the court statement, “SSA has not been able to determine exactly what data were shared to Cloudflare or whether the data still exists on the server because Cloudflare is a third-party entity.”
The revelation is consistent with what former SSA chief data officer Chuck Borges warned in his whistleblower complaint that DOGE employees uploaded a copy of the Social Security Administration’s database to a cloud environment, endangering the personal information of over 300 million Americans. A request for comment from Borges was not immediately answered.
On December 10, 2025, the Social Security Administration informed the Justice Department of its concerns, and approximately one month later, it informed the court as well. In the court filing, the agency also stated that it sent the two DOGE employees to the Office of Special Counsel due to a possible violation of the Hatch Act, which guarantees that federal employees are not subject to pressure or political influence.
“Hundreds of millions of Americans’ sensitive data is entrusted to SSA, and safeguarding that data from unauthorized use must be a key concern. “The Social Security Administration must act immediately to ensure that nothing similar can occur again, and anyone involved must be held accountable,” stated Nancy LeaMond, chief advocacy and engagement officer for AARP.
Following a turbulent year for the Social Security Administration, which was managed by Elon Musk’s DOGE in an attempt to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, the disclosures in the court filing were made. Over the past year, the agency has also experienced a number of leadership changes, layoffs, the closing of regional offices, and issues with its telephone customer service.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Social Security Administration.
“The discoveries made this week are only the beginning. We must ascertain precisely who has access to our data and what they are doing with it. According to Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy organization Social Security Works, “those who have committed illegal acts must be prosecuted.”
