For months, critics warned that handing sensitive federal databases to a small group of inexperienced tech operatives was a disaster waiting to happen. Now a whistleblower complaint suggests that nightmare scenario may have already occurred.
According to a report from The Washington Post, a former software engineer tied to Elon Musk’s controversial “DOGE” operation allegedly walked away with massive Social Security databases containing information on more than 500 million Americans—and tried to bring that data into a private company after leaving government service.
The engineer had been embedded at the Social Security Administration (SSA) through the DOGE program before later taking a job with a government contractor. According to the whistleblower complaint, he told colleagues that he had copies of two tightly restricted government databases and had at least one of them stored on a thumb drive.
Those databases—known as Numident and the Master Death File—contain deeply sensitive personal information on living and deceased Americans. The records include Social Security numbers, dates and places of birth, citizenship status, race and ethnicity, and even parents’ names.
In other words: the kind of information the federal government typically guards with extreme security.
According to the complaint, the engineer allegedly asked coworkers at his new company to help upload the data to corporate systems. At least one colleague reportedly refused, citing obvious legal concerns.
But the story gets even more disturbing.
The whistleblower alleges the former DOGE staffer brushed off those concerns, telling a coworker he expected a presidential pardon if his actions were deemed illegal.
If true, it suggests the engineer believed he could break federal law and simply rely on political protection afterward.
The complaint also claims the former DOGE employee told colleagues he still possessed his government laptop and login credentials after leaving the agency—credentials he described as having “God-level” access to Social Security systems.
That kind of access would allow someone to move freely through highly restricted federal databases.
The Social Security Administration disputes that claim. Officials say the engineer turned in his laptop and lost access privileges when he left the agency. His lawyer has also denied any wrongdoing.
Both the contractor and the SSA said they investigated the allegations internally and found no evidence confirming them. The company described its review as a two-day internal investigation.
Still, the allegations are now being taken seriously by federal watchdogs. The SSA’s inspector general has launched an investigation and notified Congress and the Government Accountability Office, which is already auditing DOGE’s access to government data systems.
And this isn’t the only warning sign.
A separate complaint filed by former SSA chief data officer Charles Borges alleged DOGE personnel improperly uploaded copies of Americans’ Social Security data to a cloud system, potentially exposing sensitive personal information.
According to government disclosures, DOGE staff were also linked to other data security problems, including sharing data through an unapproved third-party service and signing an agreement to share information with a political group attempting to overturn election results in multiple states.
For critics who warned about giving sweeping data access to inexperienced outside operators, the whistleblower complaint represents a worst-case scenario. If copies of those databases really did leave government systems, the consequences may be impossible to contain.
Once data like that escapes, there’s no putting it back in the vault.
