Elon Musk aide granted unintended access to sensitive US Treasury database
A former employee of Elon Musk was mistakenly granted clearance to make changes to the US Treasury Department’s highly sensitive payments system, a department official confirmed Tuesday.
The revelation came in a sworn statement to a federal judge amid widespread criticism that a 25-year-old Musk associate had editing rights to a system that handles trillions of dollars in government payments and contains millions of Americans’ personal information.
Who is Marko Elez?
The employee in question, Marko Elez, is a 25-year-old engineer who previously worked for Musk’s companies. Elez had no federal government status but was given access to the Secure Payment System (SPS)—a critical Treasury database.
Elez resigned Friday after being linked to a racist social media account, only for Musk to announce his reinstatement.
Trump’s role and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
President Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk to cut government spending by leading a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE has no official legal standing in the federal government, as it has not been authorized by Congress. Neither Musk nor his aides are considered civil servants or federal employees.
How did Elez gain access?
A sworn statement from Joseph Gioeli, an official from the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, confirmed that Elez was only supposed to have read-only access to the Secure Payment System (SPS). However, due to a configuration mistake, he was granted full editing rights.
“On the morning of February 6, it was discovered that Mr. Elez’s database access to SPS on February 5 had mistakenly been configured with read/write permissions instead of read-only,” Gioeli stated.
An initial investigation found that all of Elez’s interactions with the SPS system occurred under supervision and that “no unauthorized actions had taken place.”
Security concerns and political backlash
Elez’s access through a Treasury Department laptop triggered an uproar among critics of the Trump administration, raising concerns about the safety of Americans’ financial data.
A confidential internal assessment, first reported by US media, warned that his access posed an “unprecedented insider threat risk.”
Following the controversy, a court order forced Elez’s access to be downgraded back to read-only permissions.
Democratic lawmakers and citizen advocacy groups have since warned that his access to highly classified government financial data could pose a serious national security threat.
Other DOGE employees and Treasury links
Elez was not the only DOGE member with access to the Treasury’s payment system. Another DOGE worker, Thomas Krause, also submitted a sworn statement to the federal judge on Tuesday.
Krause stated that he was hired by the Treasury on January 23 as an unpaid “Senior Advisor for Technology and Modernization.” He was later delegated the duties of “Fiscal Assistant Secretary,” though he clarified:
“I have not yet assumed the duties.”
Despite this, Krause is listed in the Treasury Department’s organizational chart under this high-ranking title.
In his statement, Krause emphasized that while he coordinates with USDS/DOGE officials, provides updates, and receives high-level policy direction, he is not an official employee of Musk’s department.
Currently, the entire DOGE team within the Treasury consists only of Krause and Elez.
