The Trump Department of Justice acknowledged in a court filing in January 2026 that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees unlawfully accessed confidential Social Security Administration records to share with an outside political group.
Posted by Bulwark Takes, Checked
- Sources
- 2 contradict4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
Bulwark TakesAug 21, 2026
The January 16, 2026 DOJ filing is well documented as acknowledging a secret agreement between a DOGE employee and a political advocacy group to share Social Security data to overturn election results, so the purpose element is supported.
A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.
What was said
… You know, not just, like, my preferences, like, the law would ban these people from having access, may have had access, and it would not even be the first time that that has happened. Remember that the Trump DOJ acknowledged in a court filing in January that some DOGE employees got at Social Security Administration unlawfully accessed confidential Social Security records with the explicit purpose of sharing them with an outside group, an outside private group, political group, that wanted to use those records to match them up with voting data to demonstrate that Trump was denied his rightful election win in 2020. …
Bulwark Takes · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. SSA said it had 'not yet seen evidence that SSA data were shared with the advocacy group,' and reporting says it remains unclear whether any data actually went to the group, so the claim that records were shared with the group is not established.[1][5]
Supports. A January 2026 DOJ court filing disclosed that a DOGE employee at SSA signed an agreement with an unidentified political advocacy group that called for sharing Social Security data to overturn election results in certain states.[1][5][6][7]
Supports. The DOJ filing said DOGE employees failed to comply with a federal court order and may have violated federal and agency data privacy and security policies, which supports the 'unlawful' characterization.[2][3]
Context. The filing's language was hedged: DOGE employees 'may have' accessed private information and 'may have' used data to match voter rolls, rather than an outright acknowledgment of unlawful access.[4][6]
Sources
7 sources: 4 primary, 1 not rated, 2 tier 2
- 1Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social ...larson.house.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 2Whitehouse, Wyden Demand Update on DOGE Infiltration ...whitehouse.senate.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 3Gillibrand, Schumer, Alsobrooks Demand Accountability ...gillibrand.senate.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 4[PDF] 2026-03-09.Garcia to Fmr. DOGE letter re DOGE SSA TI Requestcongress.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 5The Trump administration admits even more ways DOGE accessed sensitive personal dataknpr.org · not rated · cited for: contradicts, supports
- 6Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused ...politico.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 7Whistleblower responds after DOJ confirms DOGE ...pbs.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post