Top Social Security official steps down after disagreement with DOGE over sensitive data
Michelle King, a high -ranking social security official, left her position this week after she rejected a request from the Ministry of Governmental efficiency at Elon Musk to reach sensitive government records at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields confirmed that King was no longer in a statement.
“President Trump Frank Pesiniano has nominated highly qualified and talented qualification to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect that he will be quickly confirmed in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the agency will lead a social security expert to combat fraud as a delegate on behalf. Fields said:
Washington Post was the first to report The departure of the king.
One of the familiar sources of the situation, Nancy Altman, the head of social security works, told a group of left -wing tendencies focusing on protecting and expanding social security, she told Medicare and Medicaid, NBC News taught the situation after talking to many current officials of the agency.
Al -Taman said that some of the information involved in the conflict included banking information for the Americans, social security numbers, profit records, marital status and birth dates, and in some cases medical records if a person has applied for disability benefits.
“It was replaced as an Acting Commissioner because it will not allow access to sensitive information.” “Therefore, she was replaced by someone who is supposed to be. But she was not forced to leave the agency. This was her choice. The White House was not allowed to allow her to the agency’s head anymore.”
President Donald Trump has appointed Liland Dudik, a director responsible for the Anti -Cheating Office in Social Security, as a delegate to the Social Security Administration now after King came out.
Altman criticized Dog’s request from the king and the Social Security Administration.
“I don’t think you can exaggerate how dangerous this violation,” Altman said. “The information enjoyed by the Social Security Administration is a lot of personal data that most people want to preserve, and they have entrusted the government through tax declarations and through employers who send earning data. The assumption is that the government will be very cautious with it.”
Germans said that King, who worked in social security management for decades, chose to retire.
SSA was not immediately returned to comment.
King’s departure is the latest in a wave of exits from senior officials whose agencies entered Crosshairs Douge.
The agency is responsible for managing payments for more than 70 million Americans. Trump pledge Not to age the discounts of retirement benefits.
In an interview with Fox News, White House press secretary Caroline Levit confirmed that the president “took out Elus Musk and Doge to determine the fraud in social security management.” She said that although the team had not “dug in books”, they suspected that fraud on a large scale occurred.
SSA Inspector General He issued a report in July It was found between 2015 and 2022, only 0.84 % of interest payments payments.
This is not the first time that Duj has scrutinized On attempts to access sensitive information. It is expected that a DOGE employee in the internal revenue department will seek to access the information motivated information for housing in the Tax Authority system, and he is the administration official NBC News said Sunday.
Dodge It was reached in addition The payment system of the Ministry of Treasury earlier this month, which stores social security numbers and other secret financial information. Then many lawsuits were filed on the pretext that Dog’s access to these data has violated federal privacy laws. Lawyers of the Ministry of Justice later agreed to restrict the arrival of Dog to the regulations of the Ministry of Treasury, with the exception of employees given “Read” arrival “as needed.
The judge was later banned Political appointed and private government employees – including those working in Doug – are access to sensitive and confidential information stored inside the treasury.
The Minister of Internal Security, Christie sleep, said this month that Trump authorized to catch the disaster data inside Fema.
