An employee with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency shared Social Security data without agency authorization and in violation of security protocols, according to a Justice Department court filing on Tuesday.
The Social Security Administration is still unable to determine what information was shared through a third-party server that is not approved to store agency records, the filing stated. It's also unknown whether that data still exists on the server.
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The filing marks the Trump administration's first acknowledgment that DOGE employees mishandled Social Security data, which a high-level agency official first claimed last year.
In April 2025, a letter from Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, stated whistleblower information suggests DOGE is "rapidly, haphazardly, and unlawfully" making changes at the Social Security Administration.
DOGE had argued it needed access to records to root out fraud.
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