Whistleblower claims ex-DOGE engineer had access to private information of millions of Americans: ‘Wants to sanitize data’

A whistleblower complaint sparked a federal investigation into a former member of a government cost-cutting team who allegedly said he had access to sensitive Social Security data and planned to use it after he jumped to a private-sector job.The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is reviewing the allegations, which involve a former software engineer with ties to the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. The agency’s inspector general informed members of Congress of the complaint and shared it with the Government Accountability Office, which is conducting a separate audit of DOGE’s access to government data, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.DOGE was launched by Tesla CEO Elon Musk after U.S. President Donald Trump asked him to lead an initiative to cut costs and identify waste at federal agencies.The former engineer worked for the Social Security Administration last year before joining the government contractor in October, the complaint said. It was revealed that he allegedly told several associates that he had access to two highly restricted databases containing records for hundreds of millions of Americans. One of the databases was reportedly stored on a thumb drive.The databases mentioned in the complaint are called “Numident” and the “Master Death File.” Together, they contain records related to more than 500 million living and deceased Americans, including Social Security numbers, dates and places of birth, citizenship details, race and ethnicity, and parental names.It was revealed that the engineer told the whistleblower that he needed help transferring the data from the thumb drive “to his personal computer” so that he could “clean” the data before using it. [the company.]”. The complaint alleges that he planned to remove personal identifiers before uploading the information to the company’s systems.The indictment also alleges that the engineer told another colleague that he hoped to receive a presidential pardon if the actions were found to be illegal. The colleague reportedly refused to help upload the data due to legal issues.The whistleblower filed a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General on January 9 and updated it on January 26. The complaint does not state that the engineer successfully transmitted or uploaded the data.The Post reviewed the complaint and spoke with the whistleblower, who filed the report anonymously out of fear of retaliation. The newspaper did not name the former DOGE employee or the company involved because the allegations have not been independently confirmed.When contacted earlier this year, both the Social Security Administration and the company said they had not heard of the complaint before. After reviewing the matter, both sides said they found no evidence to support the claims. The company said it conducted a “thorough” two-day internal investigation and concluded the allegations were unsubstantiated.An attorney representing the former DOGE member told The Washington Post that his client denies all alleged wrongdoing.An official familiar with the circumstances surrounding the engineer’s departure said he returned his government laptop and lost access to his data when he left the Social Security Administration.Former SSA data official Charles Borges expressed concern, saying: “This is the absolute worst-case scenario. There could be one copy or a million copies, but we’ll never know now.”