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Civil servants in 3 agencies RESISTED Musk minions getting at sensitive databases: UPDATED 3 X [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-01

UPDATE: At Treasury, Bessent yesterday evening handed Musk the car keys. Historian: "National emergency." (Bio)

UPDATE 2:

x NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.



[image or embed] — Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) February 1, 2025 at 3:37 PM

Concise:

x Trump is torching the economy, whilst dismantling federal agencies and purging all dissenters. The world’s richest man has been given full access to the federal treasury, which controls trillions in payments & holds sensitive personal data on millions. This is happening. This is a state coup. — News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) February 1, 2025 at 6:07 PM

UPDATE 3:

As I thought. They are probably in there effing around as we speak. The Democratic Party needs a 911 system.

__________

The reports that emerged yesterday were confusing to me as well as alarming. A top civil servant at Treasury announced his resignation.

It seemed unclear whether, or to what extent, people working for the unelected, official-only-by-decree, director of the new paragovernmental oversight organization named for his own brand of bitcoin, had actually penetrated federal financial databases, downloaded, fiddled with them or even potentially altered their functioning. At worst, it seemed possible that there might be a potential for these intruders to alter cash flows directly and cut legitimate recipients off, or even redirect funds elsewhere.

And as of today, no updates. I would expect a coup in progress not to break off for a cup of tea let alone the weekend.

This, below, seems like the clearest account so far; I have no independent evidence, but it does not seem to contradict any of the various news reports that focused on different locations, it's simple and direct and ties everything into a fairly neat bundle. Also it is from a BlueSky account with standing credibility, that would naturally have contacts within the civil service.

To peel this apart a little:

--Attempts were made to "plug in hard drives" at three separate agencies:

OPM, which oversees hiring and firing procedures, and holds eletronic personnel records, including for employees involved with classified and sensitive programs

GSA, which controls facilities, as well as oversees leases, rentals, purchasing and contracts

The Treasury Department, which controls overall cash flow of the government, bond issues, grants to states and other entities, and much more; if the report is exact, it suggests Musk's representatives were specifically interested in Social Security and Medicare, which comprises some $6 trillion in cash flow annually.

--They plugged, or tried to, external hard drives into sensitive, complicated government systems.

They may have been "only" wanting to download masses of data. (Masses so big IIRC, how many drives are we talking about? Or were they after sonething more specific, like certain people? )

They could also have messed with the systems' functioning

They possibly could also have ERASED data

Or redirected funds

Or otherwise mucked these systems up, through ignorance, incompetence, or malice

-- Musk's people tried to steal data, or whatever their business was, clandestinely. Why? There are laws and regulations about protecting personal privacy. Most likely explanation, they were acting illegally and they knew it. How much Trump or White House staff knew, and whether there was any sort of formal or informal authorization, is an open question.

"were caught"

"were discovered"

--Civil servants resisted.

"His staff encountered resistance"

"Tensions escalated"

"employees speaking out"

[From other sources] one top non-political Treasury employee, David Lebryk, has chosen to leave government in response to the demands.

--And they responded to resistance aggressively:

"locked civil servants out of computer systems and offices"

" reports of personal items being searched"



There is obviously more to the story. Who were these rogue characters exactly? Did they show ID, presumably? What ID? Did they show written authorization? How did these rogue characters lock out official staff, let alone search their stuff (for what?), did they show up with strongarm security, or take charge of security staff on site?

What were they specifically after, and what was the hard drives' intended destination?

Our members of Congress -- even in the minority -- have a right to demand answers. And share them, especially if personal info was compromised. In a just world, there'd be a thorough investigation, of course.

It sounds like Lebryk was doing his job to protect the data and got orders from higher up that he couldn't, in conscience, carry out. From whom? What exactly took place? I hope he will feel able to tell us more. (And I hope he'll consult witn attorneys. IANAL, but there is a thing called "constructive discharge," e.g., and if he was given an illegal order that ought to have ramifications.)

How much did they actually get into, what did they do, are the systems okay?

And what now?

Anyone?

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