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community weblog
Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social Security data
A DOGE employee signed an agreement to share Social Security data with the aim of overturning election results in certain states, according to a new court filing. The filing said DOGE personnel used unapproved third-party services to circulate SSA information internally and that at least some access occurred while a court order restricted DOGE's use of the data. Previously 1 2 3. Archive link.
Linked to the Washington Post article about this even though it's behind a paywall because it's far, far less mealy-mouthed than the Politico article. Really read the whole thing, it confirms everything that Charles Borges, the former chief data officer at SSA who filed a whistleblower complaint, told Congress in August.
posted by subdee on Jan 20, 2026 at 7:18 PM
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Experts said they would not be surprised to see a civil lawsuit stemming from the new admission.
So like, does that mean that the people involved won't be going to jail? Not that this administration would make prosecuting anything like this easy, but like what would make something like this a criminal proceeding rather than civil?
I'm generally against the prison-industrial complex, but like, at what point is any one of these people going to face a consequence other than a slap on the wrist or a fine?
posted by limeonaire at 7:31 PM
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I'm thinking a civil case with every single American as plaintiffs and damages at about two to three times the net worth of Elon Musk (the defendant).
posted by jabo at 7:42 PM
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I'm thinking a few others can be added in addition to Krazy Ketamine Kar Czar
posted by glaucon at 7:59 PM
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I know bills of attainder are unconstitutional but if anyone merits one it's every member of DOGE
posted by BungaDunga at 8:31 PM
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The only surprise so far is the lack of droit du seigneur being introduced for TFG to enjoy. Maybe that is after Greenland, though?
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 8:51 PM
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I know "we have the evidence" is better than "everyone knows", but this still seems like a "oh, DOGE was flagrantly breaking the law and daring anyone to do something about it? Huh, no shit" situation.
posted by flestrin at 9:43 PM
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Here's a link to the SSA's filing.
It irritates me to no end that WaPo refuses to link to these filings (or even provide the name of the case or the docket number for it).
posted by mikeand1 at 11:42 PM
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All the "surely this" sighs...
Motherfuckers burned downed the house on their way out of the kitchen.
posted by Token Meme at 12:13 AM
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I don't know what will fix what everyone at DOGE did and broke, because it's almost too large to really analyze and begin repairing. But it's good to get it published. Maybe we will see criminal cases and law suits eventually.
posted by Ahniya at 2:02 AM
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The rampant corruption of this president seems to offer any opposing political force the perfect chance to run an insurgent political campaign.
"My platform is jail the billionaires, universal single payer health care, a restoration of law and order, a reformation of the supreme court" or some such variant.
And yet the democratic leadership seems absolutely unable to even message strongly about this.
I can only hope that changes after the mid-terms and that a new more feisty batch of elected is put in, its probably still not too late for you to challenge a stuck in the mud democrat in your area if you are up for that kind of thing, or work on a campaign to do so.
posted by stilgar at 3:57 AM
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Mikie Sherill came out swinging in her NJ governor inauguration speech. Maybe we'll be the next target for Greg Bovino's roving occupational army.
posted by subdee at 4:13 AM
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Do the filings or the Wapo article name the "advocacy group"? I have only seen it referred to as such in media so far.
That's the link to the real problem. The fact that DOGE was a smokescreen? Meh. Who is paying for the data?
Follow the money, dammit.
posted by Dashy at 4:50 AM
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And what will happen to those responsible? Nothing! Nothing will happen to them!
posted by Rykey at 5:49 AM
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Do the filings or the Wapo article name the "advocacy group"? I have only seen it referred to as such in media so far.
As far as can tell the filling doesn't say:
SSA determined in its recent review that in March 2025, a political advocacy group contacted two members of SSA's DOGE Team with a request to analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired. The advocacy group's stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States. In connection with these communications, one of the DOGE team members signed a "Voter Data Agreement," in his capacity as an SSA employee, with the advocacy group. He sent the executed agreement to the advocacy group on March 24, 2025.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:41 AM
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I suspect that the advocacy group is the Heritage Foundation, the incubator of Project 2025. Those two DOGE team members would have sought guidance on what their response to the request should be, or had prior instructions regarding the advocacy group, and I'd like to see followup on that.
An opposition party should be compiling a list of constitutional crimes and alleged perpetrators, sort of a Project 2029, to prosecute at the earliest possible opportunity. It'd take a generation to adjudicate the work of this administration, but I'm still a big fan of due process, consistently and impartially applied.
Heard on the radio a few days ago that the prosecutors of the South Korean trial of the Defense Minister for insurrection could involve execution, and I was surprised at my consonance with that outcome, given my strong opposition to the death penalty.
posted by the Real Dan at 7:16 AM
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Democracy Docket points at "True the Vote". The Heritage Foundation has (I think) mostly kept a bit of a distance from active attempts at overturning elections.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:20 AM
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Why should anything happen to these folks? This is what everyone wanted to happen.
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 7:35 AM
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Why should anything happen to these folks? This is what everyone wanted to happen.
This adds nothing to the conversation.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:15 PM
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OK, and what was True the Vote gonna do with every SSN ever? Because it wasn't limited to "checking" the gd 2020 election. What next?
I hope someone is asking these very obvious questions.
posted by Dashy at 4:44 PM
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More information on SSA information being sought by election deniers, linking it to public statements by Elon Musk:
https://popular.info/p/doge-staffer-signed-deal-to-share
posted by subdee at 8:50 AM
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