The top official at the Social Security Administration (SSA) has stepped down following a clash with DOGE personnel regarding access to data, sources have confirmed.
Michelle King, a longtime official who dedicated over three decades to the agency, had been serving as acting commissioner of the SSA. However, she departed after being replaced by Leland Dudek over the weekend.
According to sources, DOGE employees sought entry into an internal database containing private and sensitive details about American citizens.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works—an organization advocating for Social Security expansion—emphasized the breadth of the SSA’s data.
“It’s your entire earnings record. If you’re a beneficiary, it’s your benefits, it’s the name of your spouse and when you got married and if you got divorced, and all kinds of information. And most sensitive, if you’ve applied for disability benefits, all of your medical records,” Altman said.
It remains uncertain whether DOGE employees later gained access to the system after the disagreement with King.
In an email to all SSA staff, Dudek expressed his commitment to leading the agency with integrity, stating he was “humbled and honored to lead this agency” until Trump’s nominee for Social Security chief, Frank Bisignano, is confirmed by the Senate.
“I will lead this agency in an open and transparent manner. My first call as Acting Commissioner was to our Inspector General’s office to provide them an opportunity to oversee and review any and all agency activities, including my actions past, present, and future. Transparency is at the heart of good government,” Dudek wrote in the message.
When approached for a response, White House Deputy Press Secretary, Harrison Fields, reaffirmed the administration’s confidence that Bisignano would be confirmed in the coming weeks.
“In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner. President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long,” Fields stated.
During an interview with Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that President Donald Trump had enlisted Musk and DOGE to uncover fraud within the SSA.
“And so their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things. Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them. Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money. And number three, to protect the integrity of the system for hard-working Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives,” Leavitt stated.
“So rest assured to all of the people watching your show tonight, if you paid into the system honestly, you will continue to receive your Social Security checks,” she added.
(The Washington Post)
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