(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



How did a low-level data analyst at Social Security Administration get promoted to commissioner? [1]

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

Date: 2025-02-22

How does a low-level data analyst (already placed on leave by his supervisor for violating federal law) at Social Security Administration get promoted to commissioner?

This may be one of the darkest scandals of the whole Elon Musk / DOGE era.

You may ask how a simple data analyst at the Social Security Administration (SSA), that no one had ever heard of become Commission of the whole Social Security Administration.

By bowing down to Elon Musk and DOGE and sharing our deepest secrets that Americans are forced to share with the government. Those secrets are now property of DOGE and Elon Musk since a simple data analyst named Leland Dudek at SSA illegally gave DOGE all our secrets.

Ordinally, I don’t like to share names of people like this but Mr. Dudek is now the public face of the whole Social Security Administration.

Independent reporter at The Handbasket has all the detail with this remarkable reporting: The curious case of Leland Dudek How blind loyalty to Elon Musk took a Social Security Administration staffer from zero to lackey hero Acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Michelle King resigned over the holiday weekend after she reportedly refused to aid Elon Musk’s pseudo-agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with accessing sensitive beneficiary data. King left a vacancy that was immediately filled by Leland Dudek, a guy who most people at the agency had never heard of before. By Wednesday night, Musk was publicly praising him as a hero. What happened? Before his big promotion, Dudek was a management analyst in a non-supervisory role, according to a current SSA staffer. But he was “so junior,” according to Nancy Altman, President of the nonprofit Social Security Works, that her sources at the agency were not familiar with him. Dudek had been placed on leave by previous leadership for helping DOGE: “I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA. I mailed myself publically [sic] accessible documents and explained them DOGE.” “I lost any respect I might have had for him on Friday when I read his ‘confessions’,” the staffer said, referring to Dudek’s deleted LinkedIn post. Musk caught wind of what Dudek had done for him and forced the former Acting Commissioner to resign; then he rewarded Dudek for his loyalty by promoting him to temporarily lead the agency while they waited for Senate confirmation of Trump’s nominee Frank Bisignano, a banking executive. (Bisignano, an SSA staffer told me, is currently “in the loop on everything.”) Link to story: www.thehandbasket.co/...

From Bloomberg: Worker Removed for Aiding DOGE Is Made Social Security Boss Within Days Leland Dudek’s weekend started with a phone call removing him from his job at the Social Security Administration after giving information about the agency to DOGE, the government cost-cutting initiative associated with billionaire Elon Musk. By Monday, he was named the agency’s acting commissioner. The fall and rise of Dudek, a relatively low-level career employee, reflects just one front in a battle happening across the federal government as President Donald Trump seeks to gain control of a bureaucracy he has long derided. It also illustrated the emphasis the new administration has put on loyalty, and the prioritization of slash-and-burn cuts to a federal bureaucracy Trump has described as bloated. Dudek gave his account of last weekend’s events in a post on LinkedIn, which has since been deleted. “They want to fire me for cooperating with DOGE,” he posted, saying he received a phone call from his boss placing him on administrative leave. “I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA,” the post continued, according to screenshots seen by Bloomberg News and confirmed by two people who read the post before it was deleted. “I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done.” Link to Story: www.msn.com/...

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/22/2305546/-How-did-a-low-level-data-analyst-at-Social-Security-Administration-get-promoted-to-commissioner?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/