Elon Musk and his team at the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been provided access by the Treasury Department to the federal government’s massive payment system.
The vast trove of payment details covers trillions of dollars in spending, essentially serving as the federal government’s checkbook. The system is closely guarded, with only a small number of authorized personnel given access to sensitive details about hundreds of millions of Americans.
David Lebryk, who previously oversaw the payment system, was placed on administrative leave last week after he was reluctant to hand over database access to Musk and DOGE. Sources told ABC News that Lebryk has revealed to colleagues that he plans to retire from the position.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that any “politically-motivated meddling” with the payments “risks severe damage to our country and the economy,” per ABC News.
“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail… I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, missioncritical systems,” Wyden wrote in a February 1 letter.
Bessent signed off on a plan to provide access to the payment system to a team led by Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group. Krause now works for the Treasury Department in collaboration with DOGE.
For his part, Musk has been adamant about his displeasure with the system.
“The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,” Musk posted on X on February 1.
The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.
They literally never denied a payment in their entire career.
Not even once. https://t.co/kInoGWdw4C
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2025
“Career Treasury officials are breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress. This needs to stop NOW!” the outspoken tech mogul wrote in another post on February 2.