US watchdog to investigate Musk ‘Doge’ team’s access to payment systems

Treasury inspector general to launch audit as judge mulls whether access to sensitive data was unconstitutional

Loren Sciurba,
the treasury’s deputy inspector general,
said the audit would review the past two years of the system’s transactions
to examine Musk’s claim that his team has uncovered evidence of billions of dollars of fraudulent payments.

She said the audit
– launched in response to demands from the Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden
– would begin immediately and
take until August to complete.

Its launch coincided with a judge in Washington considering a legal suit
lodged by Democratic attorneys general from 14 states,
arguing that Doge’s work was illegal on the alleged grounds that Trump violated the US constitution
by creating a federal government department without congressional approval.

The attorneys general argue that Musk has exercised “virtually unchecked power”
by entering government agencies and ordering sweeping cuts without oversight or authorization from Congress.

#USAid, the government foreign assistance agency, has been shuttered on his authority
and its workforce put on leave,
although a judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze it has imposed on the agency’s humanitarian work.

The suit, led by
New Mexico’s justice department,
alleges that Doge has “unraveled federal agencies, accessed sensitive data, and caused widespread disruption for state and local governments, federal employees, and the American people”.

A separate hearing in a court in New York was due
over whether to extend a temporary block on the Doge team entering the #payments #system
that was imposed in an interim ruling last Saturday by Judge #Paul #Englemayer.

Musk called for Englemayer’s impeachment after that ruling,
while JD Vance, the vice-president, wrote in a social media most that judges were not allowed to interfere with a president’s “legitimate power”
– a view contested by most constitutional law experts.

On Friday, Judge #Jeannette #Vargas extended the temporary block, though she said she would not yet rule on whether there should be a longer lasting preliminary injunction prohibiting Doge’s access to the treasury payment system.

Swingeing cuts continued apace despite the plethora of legal challenges.

Federal agency heads were ordered to fire most recent hires who have not completed their probation period – a move likely to affect about 200,000 workers, the Washington Post reported.

The treasury department audit coincided with a call from #Chris #Murphy, Democratic senator for Connecticut,
for an official investigation into the “legality and scope” of Musk’s penetration of the federal bureaucracy.

“Musk and his aides are subject to various conflict of interest statutes which prohibit federal employees from participating in matters that impact their own financial interests,”
Murphy wrote to the US government comptroller general, #Eugene #Dodaro.

He added: “It is imperative the public understands whether Musk and his aides have complied with the law
and whether highly sensitive data could be at risk if accessed by private actors who seek to benefit from the information illegally,
or worse, by foreign adversaries who wish to attack this country.”

Murphy’s letter to Dodaro came as HuffPost reported that Doge had publicly #posted #classified #information about the size and staff of a US intelligence agency – the National Reconnaissance Office – on its new website.

The exposure reportedly left some “scrambling to check if their info has been accessed”,
according to one Defense Intelligence Agency employee who spoke with HuffPost.

Despite the rising resistance to its activities,
the US #armed #services were preparing a list of weapons systems to be cut
in preparation for Doge casting its gaze over the #Pentagon, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Members of Musk’s team were expected to visit the Pentagon on Friday.

“People are offering up things sacrificially, hoping that will prevent more cuts,” a defence official told the Journal.

The army was said to be volunteering cutting outdated drones and vehicles,
while the navy is proposing cuts to frigates and littoral combat ships.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/musk-doge-payment-system-investigation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

On December 5, right-wing culture warriors instructed lawmakers attending the
American Legislative Exchange Council’s ( #ALEC )
"States and Nation Policy Summit"
in Washington, D.C.,
on the steps their states can take to upend policies and practices
designed to help address the unfolding climate emergency and diversify workforces.

CRC Advisors Senior Vice President #Mike #Thompson led the workshop
“Battles Won, War Continues:
The Left, ESG and State Policy,”
according to materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

In 2020, #Greg #Mueller and #Leonard #Leo, who played an integral role in Trump’s effort to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing judges,
founded CRC Advisors
— the group Thompson represents
— to “funnel big money and expertise across the conservative movement.”

Although not as well known as Leo,
Thompson, a member of ALEC’s private sector advisory board,
is an important Christian Right operative
who plays multiple leadership roles in campaigns and communications.

Thompson’s public relations skills were on full display in his remarks
demonizing the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ),
“a global coalition of leading financial institutions committed to accelerating the decarbonization of the economy”
in order to preserve the planet from further destruction.

Thompson argued that large asset managers and banks that participate in GFANZ
— including BlackRock, State Street, Wells Fargo, City Bank, Morgan Stanley, Chase, and Bank of America
— are breaking antitrust law by utilizing sustainable investment strategies.

Thompson provided an example of a lawsuit against BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard
filed last month by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and 10 other Republican attorneys general
— all active members of the fossil-fuel backed "Republican Attorneys General Association" ( #RAGA )
— alleging that the three companies violated antitrust law in colluding to raise electricity prices through their investments.

“The states have filed an antitrust lawsuit and they detail in it all of the evidence where those three companies were colluding to keep coal in the ground and from coming to market,
thus, driving up the price and violating antitrust law,”
Thompson told workshop participants.

The PR professional neglected to mention that CRC Advisors is a paid consultant of RAGA
or that his boss Leo’s "Concord Fund" has funneled $3.5 million to the pay-to-play group this year
and $20.3 million since the organization was founded in 2014, according to CMD’s analysis of its tax filings.

#Sal #Nuzzo, the first workshop presenter, is executive director of
"Consumers Defense",
the sister organization of Consumers’ Research,
which is a vice-chairman sponsor of ALEC’s summit and a driver of the right-wing’s manufactured crisis around “woke” capitalism.

Nuzzo argued that reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 through renewable energy production would force Americans to cede
“two-thirds of [the] U.S. electricity generation supply chain to the Communist Party of China.”

He didn’t cite a source for this claim, nor does the group’s website provide any research substantiating it.

Nuzzo also attempted to raise the alarm with lawmakers from states that depend on agriculture
by claiming that the Left has “shifted their attacks and tactics into the agriculture space”
in response to anti-ESG legislation passed over the last three legislative cycles
and has moved to prevent farmers from getting access to loans.

“The [Left’s] coordinated attacks on agriculture are occurring at all levels.
They’re at the producer level.
They’re at the distributor level.
They’re at the consumption and sales level,”
Nuzzo claimed.

“If farming interests cannot get financing, [farmers] cannot operate.”

#Paul #Watkins, founder of "Fusion Law" and both a senior legal fellow at "Consumers’ Research"
and a special counsel with "Heritage Action", made a number of claims in his presentation
based on his belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are discriminatory,
and therefore illegal.

As a member of ALEC’s "Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force", he is involved in drafting and voting on most of the group’s pro-fossil fuel policies alongside lawmakers and polluting industry lobbyists.
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/12/07/top-leonard-leo-lieutenant-leads-alec-bootcamp-against-woke-capitalism