Musk team's access to Treasury records raises a row
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Nearly every computer system draws a line between the right to look at files and the right to change them — but till now, the details barely mattered to most non-programmers.
The big picture: The early days of Trump's second administration — as Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crew execute a hostile takeover of the federal government's digital infrastructure — are giving Washington a crash course in the importance of system permissions.
- With "read-only" permission, you can open, review and copy data and programs.
- With "read-write" access, you can delete files, alter data and rewrite code.
Why it matters: Much of the capital and the nation is still trying to figure out whether Musk is simply scouring the federal books to flag waste and fraud — as the Trump transition originally described the DOGE effort — or if he has unilaterally, and maybe unconstitutionally, seized a sort of line-item veto power over every dollar the government spends.
- "Read" or "write" could be the difference between a budget review and a spending freeze. It could also be the difference between speeding up the government or tearing it down.
Catch up quick: Over the past few days, reports that Musk and his team had gained unprecedented access to broad swathes of federal systems came with assurances that DOGE would have "read-only" access.
- The sharpest controversy has been over the Treasury Department's payment system — a venerable corner of the bureaucracy responsible for actually writing checks from federal accounts to everyone from military contractors to Social Security recipients.
Multiple outlets reported alarm late last week among nonpartisan career Treasury employees that DOGE workers had gained access to the payment system.
- The Wall Street Journal and Politico wrote that anonymous administration sources said Musk's team would only be reading Treasury information, not changing it.
But a Monday story in Wired says DOGE has obtained much broader "read-write" capabilities.
- "A 25-year-old engineer ... who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems," Wired reports, citing three unnamed sources.
- The engineer's access includes "the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the U.S. government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service," two of those sources told Wired.
The other side: A letter from an unnamed Treasury Department official to members of Congress Tuesday afternoon defended the DOGE project.
- "Currently, Treasury staff members working with Tom Krause, a Treasury employee, will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service's payment systems," the letter read. "This is similar to the kind of access that Treasury provides to individuals reviewing Treasury systems, such as auditors."
- Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, is now serving as a "special government employee" at Treasury, according to the letter.
Context: No documented evidence has surfaced to date showing anyone at DOGE has meddled with Treasury data or programs.
- But concerns over what DOGE employees might do with "read-write" power may not be entirely unfounded, given Musk's repeated boasts on X that he and DOGE have "deleted" one federal organization or that another agency should "die."
There are three roads this story could take from here.
1. The DOGE project really does stick to "read-only" work.
- Providing the Trump administration and Congress with informed recommendations for saving taxpayers' money, rather than taking direct action, would defuse much of the controversy — but hardly seems in character for Musk.
2. DOGE's team keeps working in a fog of confusion and no one really knows what they're doing inside federal systems.
- That means whatever happens in the next government IT meltdown or federal shutdown crisis will be blamed on them.
3. Musk starts directly blocking Treasury payments, provoking a constitutional crisis.
- If you don't mind breaking things, you can drastically alter IT systems a lot faster than any judge can stop you.
Two important facts are worth remembering, whatever happens.
- Even plain read-only access is plenty sensitive, given the nature of the payment system's data, which includes Social Security numbers and tax information.
- While tackling this project, Musk remains not only the wealthiest person on the planet but the owner and CEO of multiple giant companies that do billions in direct business with the U.S. government.
