According to two sources familiar with the situation he spoke to NBC, Michelle King, the top social security officer, asked Elon Musk to access the agency’s sensitive government records from government efficiency. He left his position this weekend after refusing. news.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields confirmed in a statement that King is no longer the head of the agency.
“President Trump has appointed Frank Vignano, a highly qualified and talented, to lead the Social Security Agency. We hope he will be quickly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, agents will be led by social security anti-combustion experts as representatives. President Trump will appoint the best and most qualified individuals dedicated to working on behalf of the American people. I promise that.
The Washington Post was the first to report King’s departure.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, one of the sources familiar with the situation, told Medicare and Medicaid, a left-leaning group focusing on protecting and expanding social security, The agency told NBC News that after talking to several officials, they learned about the situation.
Dispute-related information includes American banking information, Social Security numbers, earnings records, marriage status status, date of birth and, in some cases, medical records when applying for disability benefits, Altman said. I did.
“She was replaced as a proxy commissioner because she had no access to sensitive information,” Altman said of King. “So she was replaced by someone who would probably do that. But she wasn’t forced to leave the agency. That was her choice. So that she wouldn’t become the head of the agency anymore. It was the White House’s choice to do so.”
President Donald Trump has appointed Leland Dudeck, manager of Social Security’s anti-fraud office, as the Social Security Agency’s representative, as well as the manager of Social Security’s anti-fraud offices.
Altman denounced King and the Social Security Agency’s Doge’s request.
“I don’t think we can exaggerate how serious this violation is,” Altman said. “The information that the Social Security Administration has is a lot of personal data that most people want to be private, and is delegated to the government through their tax returns and employers, sending revenue statements. The assumption is: The government should be very careful about that.”
After working for the Social Security Agency for decades, King has chosen to quit, Altman said.
The SSA did not immediately return a request for comment.
King’s departure is the latest in the wave of exits from high-ranking officials whose agents have entered the Doge crosshairs.
The agency is responsible for managing payments for over 70 million Americans. Trump vowed not to enact a cut in retirement benefits.
In an interview with Fox News, White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt confirmed that the president “instructed Elon Musk and the Doge team to identify the Social Security Agency’s fraud.” She said the team “hasn’t delved into the book,” but they suspected that there was a widespread fraud.
SSA inspectors published a report in July, when it was discovered between 2015 and 2022, but only 84% of the benefits were inappropriate.
This is not the first time Doge has monitored an attempt to access sensitive information. Employees at the Internal Revenue Service’s DOGE are expected to seek access to sensitive taxpayer information in the IRS system, administrative authorities told NBC News on Sunday.
Doge also accessed the Treasury payment system earlier this month. It stores your Social Security Number and other sensitive financial information. Several lawsuits have since been filed claiming Doge’s access to this data violates federal privacy laws. The Justice Department’s lawyers later agreed to temporarily restrict access to Doge’s Treasury system, except for two employees who were given access “read if necessary.”
The judge later temporarily blocked political appointees and special government officials, including those working at Doge, from accessing sensitive and sensitive information stored in the Treasury Department.
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said this month that Trump granted MUSK access to disaster data housed within FEMA.
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