Treasury Official Quits After Resisting Musk's Requests on Payments

[Uncle Joe]

Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team sought access to the government’s vast payment system, part of its bid to choke off federal funding.

David Lebryk’s abrupt departure raises questions about whether Elon Musk will now gain control of the payment system — and, if so, how he could use it.Credit...Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post, via Getty Images

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Mr. Musk, a billionaire, has dispatched aides across the bureaucracy to try to radically reduce spending. He has told Trump administration officials that he aims to take control of the Treasury computers used to complete payments in order to identify fraud and abuse, according to three people familiar with his remarks.

The Treasury Department executes payments on behalf of agencies across the government, disbursing $5.4 trillion, or 88 percent of all federal payments, in the last fiscal year. The system is run out of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, a little-known but critical office that is responsible for getting money to Social Security recipients, government employees, contractors and others.

Former Treasury officials said they were not aware of a political appointee ever seeking access to details of the payment system, which includes reams of sensitive personal information about American citizens. Control of the system could give Mr. Musk’s allies the ability to unilaterally cut off money intended for federal workers, bondholders and companies, and open a new front in the Trump administration’s efforts to halt federal payments.

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The White House and a representative of Mr. Musk??s Department of Government Efficiency did not return requests for comment.

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Mr. Lebryk raised the request to Treasury officials at the time, noting that it was the type of proprietary information that should not be shared with people who did not work for the federal government. Members of the departing Biden administration were alarmed by the request, according to people familiar with their thinking. The people making the requests were on the Trump landing team at the Treasury Department, according to a current White House official.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/politics/david-lebryk-treasury-resigns-musk.html#:~:text=Former%20Treasury%20officials%20said,return%20requests%20for%20comment.

[msongs]

1. how is non governmental employee allowed access to anything? nt