Elon Musk’s DOGE had access to sensitive federal data that could significantly benefit his sprawling business empire even after he quits government, a new report claims.
An investigation by The Washington Post found DOGE staffers had access to potentially advantageous records from at least seven government agencies or departments ranging from documents on rivals’ trade secrets to investigation files on Musk’s own companies.
There was no evidence Musk has actually used any of this information to help his companies or viewed it himself. Nor is there evidence that DOGE staffers made any copies of the data they accessed.
But at least one firm that competes with Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, told the Post its executives had held meetings to discuss what to do about DOGE’s access to federal contracting data that could make the company “vulnerable”.
“Getting your hands on a nonpublic spreadsheet that details every aspect of the agency’s contracts creates a tremendous advantage… [which] will endure for many years,” said former Pentagon contracting officer Christoph Mlinarchik.
In addition to being CEO and controlling shareholder of SpaceX, Musk — currently Earth’s richest person — runs the electric car maker Tesla, the brain interface company Neuralink, and the social network X (formerly Twitter), which Musk wants to turn into an “everything app” incorporating banking and financial services.
In a statement to The Independent, a White House spokesperson said: “I would defer you to their own reporting contradicting themselves: ‘The Post found no evidence that DOGE has viewed or misused government information to benefit Musk’s business empire.”
The spokesperson also said the administration will “follow all the appropriate ethics and [data] laws”.
Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, and X’s parent company xAI, have been asked for comment.
Within days of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, DOGE began a campaign to insert hand-picked staffers across the federal government, arguing they needed extensive access to government data to identify waste and fraud.
Since then, numerous lawsuits have offered windows into just how much information these employees — many of whom previously worked for Musk’s companies — could see. The Post also interviewed people inside government agencies targeted by DOGE.
At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), DOGE allegedly had unprecedented “god tier” access to agency records including trade secrets belonging to other payments companies — which officials had reportedly promised would be protected.
The Trump administration has asserted in court that these DOGE staffers signed written agreements to follow all federal security, confidentiality, and ethics laws.
At NASA, which contracts extensively with SpaceX, Musk’s minions allegedly had access to non-public data about contracts, bids, and negotiations involving other companies.
“Basically you’re looking at the agency’s internal thought processes,” said Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law at George Washington University Law School.
Musk’s team allegedly gained complete access to computer systems at the Department of Labor, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has repeatedly penalized SpaceX and Tesla and which may hold records of anonymous whistleblowers within Musk’s companies.
The Department of Education, the Social Security Administration, the Treasury Department, and the General Services Administration also gave DOGE access to potentially advantageous information, according to the Post.
This is not the first report raising questions about the extent of DOGE’s access. In April, an investigation by NPR found evidence that DOGE engineers at the National Labor Relations Board exported large amounts of sensitive data outside the agency while trying to remove all records of their actions. The NLRB said it had investigated and found “no breach of agency systems”.
Such reports have alarmed not only Democrats but also conservatives such as Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s top advisers during his first presidential campaign and first term.
“I think we have to have a letter of certification that not one dataset or piece of data of the United States government or citizens of this country are held by anybody, or any copies held, except for the Trump administration and the U.S. government,” Bannon said in April.
