Two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results in certain states,” and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls, the Justice Department revealed in newly disclosed court papers.

Elizabeth Shapiro, a top Justice Department official, said SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from using their official positions for political purposes.

Shapiro’s previously unreported disclosure, dated Friday, came as part of a list of “corrections” to testimony by top SSA officials during last year’s legal battles over DOGE’s access to Social Security data. They revealed that DOGE team members shared data on unapproved “third-party” servers and may have accessed private information that had been ruled off-limits by a court at the time.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      4 days ago

      I didn’t know this at all. We assumed, but now we know.

      secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results in certain states,” and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Yeah, sorry, just a bit of pique at the articles years-after of crimes we saw happening in real time. As if it absolves the press from something. Good to have all the facts at hand of course.

  • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    That was the whole point of him gaining access…

    If American survives this, learning the gravity of the consequences of what has been done will be shocking. There is ZERO security or oversight on the management of that sensitive government data. For all we know this has been sold to China and Russia and whoever else. The geopolitical power dynamic shift in the coming decade is going to severely hurt Americans and they’ll be stupid enough to believe the GOP when they blame whoever is current Dem leadership is.

  • phx@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I wonder how much of that info is being used by ICE in places like MN right now

  • diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Can anyone explain exactly what “social security data”is being misused and how? What are the implications here what are the possibilities