Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office, was suspected of sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service. Now he’s the acting Social Security commissioner.

Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner, according to three current or former government officials with knowledge of the events.

The agency’s leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them, was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, according to the three, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an internal matter.

It’s not clear what data Dudek shared, but his actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials, including attorneys in the general counsel’s office, also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency’s personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires.

The Social Security Administration, based in Woodlawn, Maryland, is the government’s central hub for Americans’ most sensitive personal and financial information and the country’s largest benefit-paying entity. Social Security also keeps data on individuals who interact with many other federal agencies, including the IRS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agriculture Department, as well as state unemployment offices.

Representatives for DOGE — which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, though it is not a Cabinet-level agency — toured the headquarters building this month and were eager to gain access to a key database in their search for benefits fraud. When the team learned last week that Dudek would be investigated, the chief information officer called acting commissioner Michelle King to demand answers. Then, on the Sunday of Presidents’ Day weekend, King received an email announcing that Trump had appointed Dudek to replace her. After being effectively forced out, King abruptly retired after three decades of service, the three individuals said. Her acting chief of staff, Tiffany Flick, also retired.

The White House skipped over scores of career senior executives in the agency’s line of succession in appointing Dudek, an IT expert with a zeal for eliminating fraud who was a high-ranking employee on the federal salary scale but not a manager.

“They want to fire me for cooperating with DOGE,” Dudek wrote in a now-deleted LinkedIn post that was captured by several Social Security employees and is making the rounds of the staff. “I confess,” he wrote. “I helped DOGE understand SSA. I mailed myself publicly accessible documents and explained them to DOGE. I confess. I moved contractor money around to add data science resources to my anti-fraud team. I confess. I asked where the fat was and is in our contracts so we can make the right tough choices.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Dudek had cooperated with Musk’s team.

In his first days on the job, Dudek has made bold moves that are highly unusual for someone in an acting role. He has slashed the agency’s research program, restructured numerous departments, announced the hires of new political staff, and made personnel changes that include the demotion of the career senior executive who was involved in placing him on paid leave last week, according to internal personnel announcements obtained by The Washington Post.

Dudek’s sudden elevation amid the departure of career leaders with years of experience has thrown the agency of 58,000 employees into turmoil as Trump’s nominee to lead it permanently, Fiserv chief executive Frank Bisignano, awaits his confirmation hearings in the Senate. Social Security manages retirement, survivor and disability benefits, and Supplemental Security Income to 73 million Americans. The political risks of instability at the agency, including uncertainty about its solvency and whether payments will continue to flow to millions of Americans, are considerable for Trump and Republicans generally.

Dudek, reached on his cellphone late Friday, declined to comment. The Social Security press office did not respond to a request for comment.

As of Friday, the Senate Finance Committee had not scheduled a hearing for Bisignano, whose paperwork is still being vetted, according to two congressional aides.

The agency is facing multiple challenges.

Dozens of probationary employees were notified Thursday that they would be fired unless they transferred to lower-paying front-line roles. Officials have struggled since the coronavirus pandemic to provide timely customer service, particularly to those seeking disability benefits, with long waits for phone service and growing processing times for disability claims.

Meanwhile, legislation passed in December giving full retirement benefits to public sector employees has thrown the agency a new and complex task of implementing the changes, which affect the benefits for more than 3 million people.

“If I were them, I would want to get my permanent person in as fast as possible,” said Andrew Saul, who served as Social Security commissioner during Trump’s first term. “The situation is not good, obviously.”

Saul said he recommended King, then deputy commissioner for operations, to Trump’s transition team after his election in November. “I knew she’d hold the ship down.”

Since he moved into the ninth-floor commissioner’s office at headquarters on Tuesday, Dudek has received briefings on Social Security’s basic functions and benefit programs, people familiar with his activities said. On Wednesday, he held two lengthy meetings with program managers, inviting congressional aides as well as White House budget staff and Social Security experts at the Government Accountability Office.

He opened the meetings with a pledge to operate with “full transparency,” two attendees said, then gave department heads 15 minutes to explain what they do and justify why their roles are essential to Social Security operations. The chief information officer, a political appointee named Michael Russo who is aligned with DOGE, also was present.

Dudek proposed some big changes for agency operations, including digitizing Social Security cards, reorganizing IT functions and outsourcing “lower risk transactions” now staffed by employees, raising concerns among some attendees that personally identifiable information would land in the hands of outside companies. Dudek told at least one manager that their staff was too large, attendees said. On Friday, a press release said that almost all agreements with outside researchers, who study ideas to keep retirement benefits solvent, monitor disability benefit trends and analyze program data, would be canceled. The release said $15 million would be saved.

“There ARE good people in the government who want to eliminate fraud … waste,” Musk posted Thursday on X about Dudek’s elevation to acting commissioner. “Amazingly, Leland was fired by Social Security upper management for helping @DOGE find taxpayer savings. Can you believe that?? Thanks to President Trump, Leland was brought back right away and now HE is upper management.”

Musk’s and Trump’s claims on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly receiving retirement benefits were wildly overstated and misrepresent Social Security data, The Post found. Dudek, in a statement to employees this week, acknowledged that the claims involve people who do not have a date of death listed on their record. “These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits,” he wrote.

Dudek said that DOGE officials have access to some Social Security data, identified by people familiar with it as the Enterprise Data Warehouse, but that the access is on a read-only basis. The database contains records for all Americans who have been issued Social Security numbers and interacted with the agency to apply for benefits. Also included are wage, tax and bank account information as well as addresses.

Employee access to Social Security’s sensitive data is severely restricted to those who are authorized to see it to complete their job duties. The systems are continuously monitored to identify suspicious behaviors.

During Trump’s first term, the White House sought access to a particularly sensitive database known as the No Match File that compares Social Security numbers with employers’ earning statements. The White House was interested in finding undocumented immigrants who may have been using stolen identities. Officials denied access at the time, but career officials are concerned that with its more aggressive second-term approach to deporting undocumented immigrants and asserting control over government operations, the White House could gain access to the data.

In a letter to Dudek after his appointment as acting commissioner, Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and four other committee Democrats demanded to know how he has helped DOGE. The lawmakers said they were alarmed to read reports that Dudek had been placed on leave pending an investigation.

“While we agree that more can always be done to improve SSA’s process, Musk and DOGE do not appear to be interested in improving the system for Americans,” the senators wrote. “Rather than working collaboratively with the agency to understand and improve its existing systems, Musk and DOGE have been keener on publicizing misleading or blatantly inaccurate information about Social Security. This raises questions on whether their pursuit of combatting waste, fraud, and abuse is purely performative rather than sincere.”