Unfolding Privacy Scandal: Elon Musk and the Treasury

By Mike Gold

I knew Elon Musk had long arms, but I never realized they could reach from Washington D.C. to Pleasantville. And, everywhere else in America. 

The guy’s a mutant octopus, with millions of arms. He’s got his fingers in every American citizen’s pocket right now.

What I’m talking about is Musk’s plundering of the private financial information of each Social Security-collecting, Medicare recipient’s taxpayer refund and veteran’s benefits account with the United States Treasury Department.

“DOGE associates have been feeding vast troves of government records and databases into artificial intelligence tools, looking for unwanted federal programs and trying to determine which human work can be replaced by AI, machine-learning tools or even robots,” stated a Washington Post article published Feb. 8. 

Musk’s minions, most of them twenty-something boys, are using AI? That makes me feel so much better.

“In less than three weeks, Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has followed the same playbook at one federal agency after another: Install loyalists in leadership. Hoover up internal data, including the sensitive and the classified, the Washington Post article said. 

“DOGE team members are… given superpowered user accounts enabling them to access and edit reams of government data with little to no oversight… That allows them to make changes at lightning speed, bypassing typical security protocols and alarming government employees tasked with keeping sensitive data secure,” the Post reported.

Musk’s people could have your private data right now. 

Now, it should go without saying that this man, reputedly the richest in the world, should not have access to this information. 

Musk’s actions should arouse the anger of every American, no matter their party affiliation. 

CBS News reported on its website: “There’s no community of Americans that this system does not touch, and so I think the concern is that access to this system including personally identifiable information has been ceded to the president’s billionaire friend for reasons that are passing understanding,” Donald K. Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Early on Feb. 8, a federal judge blocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team from continuing to look at the files. The questions now are what has Musk done with the information he’s already accessed, and what will he do with it?

Here’s my short take on it: Why is Elon Musk invading your privacy and mine? How is it possible that the world’s richest man, who is not a government employee, not even a political appointee, not vetted by Congress, has gotten access to the Treasury payments system? My private information is in there. I collect Social Security and I’m on Medicare.

I did what every citizen should do – I contacted Mike Lawler, my congressman. I wrote Rep. Lawler an email. I called his office in New York State and the Washington, D.C. office too. I haven’t heard back from Congressman Lawler. 

We deserve a statement from Lawler on his feelings about what Musk has done. We need to know where Mike Lawler stands on the most dramatic mass invasion of citizens’ privacy in U.S history. This event dwarfs by far the numerous hackings of private corporations’ computer systems. 

I also contacted Senator Gillibrand’s office by email, registering my displeasure with Musk’s actions.

This is the response I got back from her office:

“Thank you for contacting my office. Your thoughts and concerns are very important to me and help me to better represent you in the Senate. If this is a request for assistance with a federal agency or an immigration case, please contact my Department of Constituent Affairs through my website or email casework@gillibrand.senate.gov. If this is a request regarding the federal grantmaking process, please contact grants@gillibrand.senate.gov.”

Her automated reply is worth exactly nothing. 

 I wrote Senator Schumer as well, to cover all my bases. 

I don’t expect Rep. Lawler to say anything. He’s a member of the Republican Party. He doesn’t want to get crossways with the White House. I would be pleasantly surprised if he defended the privacy rights of the citizens in his district.

But I do hope that Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other Democrats get out in front of the Treasury Department and make a public, loud, proud and fierce stand against the actions of Musk. They need to go on Fox TV, and every other news outlet they can and tell Republican audiences this is wrong. 

We need their leadership. Where are they?

The office of Maxwell Frost, a young Florida Representative wrote me in an automated email the other day: 

“I just got back from outside the Department of Education where DOZENS of members of Congress and I were being ILLEGALLY denied entry by armed Federal officers. 

“So Elon Musk can be allowed entry into a federal building, but not your elected representatives???

“I already saw this happen just days ago, when we were denied entry into the Treasury Department, while Elon’s goons were accessing the data of MILLIONS of Americans. 

“This is an authoritarian regime. Without any oversight, any accountability, and any transparency, Elon could be doing WHATEVER he wants (and spoiler alert: it’s definitely making him richer). 

“I’m not going to put up with this fascist B.S., and you shouldn’t either. If we all rise up together, we can show Elon that we’re not backing down without a fight. This is about OUR families, OUR education, OUR freedoms.”

Frost then asked me for money for future campaign. Even so, I was glad someone was out there trying to do something for the American people.

I emailed the Democratic State Chair Jay Jacobs for a comment on this awful situation. He emailed me back. I got more than I bargained for in terms of his response, but it’s so eloquent that I am going to quote him in full:

“Whether it is Elon Musk’s illegal accessing of information, the shutting down of USAID, the offering of unauthorized civil service buyouts along with an assortment of other presidential orders that require Congressional action, Americans are beginning to see the consequences of this past election.  Say what you want about Donald Trump.  At the very least, he is proving to be true to his word.  Though he did not own Project 2025 during the campaign, we all knew that Project 2025 would be his guiding plan of action,” Jacobs wrote.

“Those who say that Democrats are not fighting back hard enough, are not taking into account the realities of politics.  Right now, those that voted for Donald Trump believe that he is doing exactly what it is they wanted him to do.  

“Most of those that did not, have yet to feel the real pain that will be widely shared as he continues his destructive behavior and continues to feel more emboldened.  Successful opposition works best when supported by an overwhelming sense of public outrage.  “It’s not soup yet.”  Let this stew simmer and we will begin to see the actual, real-life consequences of Trump’s malicious actions.  Then – and only then – will the voices of us Democrats have the impact that our supporters today demand.  And only then will our voices have the impact that our nation today needs,” Jacobs wrote.

We, the ordinary citizens of the country, need to speak up. Call Lawler, Gillibrand, and Schumer. Email them. Make your voice heard. If we all get busy speaking out, they will notice.

This affects every one of us.

Pleasantville-based journalist Michael Gold has had articles published in the New York Daily News, the Albany Times Union, among many others.