DOGE Shared Social Security Data With Advocacy Group Seeking to Overturn Elections

TL;DR: A DOGE staffer embedded at the Social Security Administration signed an agreement to share SSA data with an unnamed advocacy group. Their stated goal: "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states." DOGE also stored personal data for 1,000 people on Cloudflare servers that weren't approved for federal data. Two DOGE employees have been referred for Hatch Act violations. The Trump administration admitted all of this in a court filing on January 16, 2026.

What the DOJ Admitted

In a January 16, 2026 court filing, Department of Justice lawyers disclosed that an employee with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agreed to share Social Security Administration data with an unidentified political advocacy group.^[1]

The filing states it plainly: "The advocacy group's stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states."

This isn't speculation. This isn't leaked documents. This is the Trump administration's own lawyers admitting in federal court what happened.

The agreement was signed on March 24, 2025, four days after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE from accessing sensitive SSA data.

The Timeline

Here's how DOGE's access to America's most sensitive database unfolded:^[2]

February 2025: DOGE representatives demand SSA access. Roughly 10 people assigned to review alleged fraud cases
February 21: Lawsuit filed alleging DOGE violated privacy laws
March 3: DOGE staffer sends encrypted file with 1,000 names and addresses to Department of Homeland Security, copying Steve Davis (DOGE adviser) and a Labor Department DOGE employee
March 7-17: SSA DOGE employees share data through unapproved Cloudflare servers
March 15: DOGE engineer Aram Moghaddassi requests access to SAVE citizenship verification system, writing "This access is absolutely critical to get detailed immigration status for non-citizen SSNs"
March 20: Federal judge issues temporary restraining order blocking DOGE access
March 24 (morning): A DOGE staffer searches SSA's master database, the one containing every Social Security number in America
March 24 (same day): A DOGE employee signs the voter data agreement with the advocacy group
March 25: Trump signs executive order directing DHS and DOGE to review voter registration lists
March 30: Antonio Gracias, a Musk ally working with DOGE, claims at a Wisconsin rally that data matching found noncitizens registered to vote
June 2025: Supreme Court reverses restraining order, gives DOGE full access
August 29: SSA Chief Data Officer Chuck Borges resigns after alleging 300+ million Americans' data was copied to unsecured cloud servers
November 2025: SSA discovers the advocacy group agreement during an unrelated review
Late December: Two Hatch Act referrals made
January 16, 2026: DOJ files court document admitting the violations

The Cloudflare Problem

DOGE staffers stored personal information from approximately 1,000 individuals on Cloudflare, an internet services company. Cloudflare was never approved to store federal data.^[3]

According to the court filing, SSA "could not verify the extent of violations, determine what data was shared, or confirm whether it still exists despite ongoing efforts by SSA's Chief Information Office."

Translation: They don't know what data left the building, where it went, or if copies still exist on third-party servers.

The 1,000-person file was sent as an "encrypted and password-protected file" to DHS, copying Steve Davis and a DOGE employee at the Labor Department. SSA believes the file contained personally identifiable information including names and addresses.

The Voter Fraud Claims Fell Apart

Antonio Gracias, a private equity investor and Musk ally embedded with DOGE at SSA, made public claims that data matching had found "well over a thousand" or "thousands" of noncitizens who voted.^[4]

By late April, the actual results were in: 57 cases referred for prosecution. The referrals were described as cases that "may or may not have voted."

From "thousands" of confirmed fraudulent votes to 57 "maybe" cases. Voting experts characterized the data-matching approach as error-prone and legally questionable. The SAVE verification tool has been flagging U.S. citizens as noncitizens since it launched.

But by then, the damage was done. SSA data had been shared with an advocacy group whose stated goal was overturning elections.

Who Was Involved

Aram Moghaddassi: DOGE engineer with simultaneous access to DHS and SSA systems. Later became SSA co-chief information officer
Antonio Gracias: Private equity investor and Musk ally. Made public claims about voter fraud based on SSA data at a Wisconsin rally
Steve Davis: DOGE adviser who was copied on the 1,000-person data file
Chuck Borges: SSA Chief Data Officer who resigned in August 2025 after alleging data was copied to unsecured cloud servers
Two unnamed SSA DOGE employees: Referred to federal watchdog for potential Hatch Act violations

The advocacy group remains unnamed in court filings. However, True the Vote made public appeals to DOGE in early March, offering aggregated voter roll data and stating "We've received word that this message is being carried forward." Federal officials also held meetings with the Election Integrity Network, Cleta Mitchell's group, regarding SAVE system changes before the public announcement.^[5]

The Response

AARP demanded accountability: "SSA is entrusted with the sensitive data of hundreds of millions of Americans, and protecting that data from illegal use must be a top priority."^[6]

House Democrats called for criminal investigation. Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA) issued a joint statement: "The 'DOGE' appointees engaged in this scheme, who were never brought before Congress for approval or even publicly identified, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for these abhorrent violations of the public trust."^[7]

They called it "what could very well be the largest data breach in our nation's history."

Democrats have introduced the Protecting Americans' Social Security Data Act to block political appointees like Musk from accessing sensitive SSA systems and establish stronger privacy requirements with civil penalties for violations.

What This Means

The Social Security Administration holds data on every American with a Social Security number. Names, numbers, addresses, work history, disability status, benefits information.

DOGE staffers, who were never confirmed by Congress, accessed this database and signed agreements to share data with outside political groups. They used unapproved third-party servers. They continued accessing data after a court ordered them to stop. And when the voter fraud claims they were chasing turned out to be mostly fiction, they'd already handed the data off.

The court filing acknowledges SSA still doesn't know the full scope of what happened. They can't confirm what data was shared, with whom, or whether it still exists on third-party servers.

This is the surveillance state in action, not a foreign adversary, but the government itself using your data for political purposes.

What You Can Do

Freeze Your Credit

If SSA data is being passed around, your SSN is at risk. Freeze at all three bureaus: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion.

Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN

Prevents tax fraud using your SSN. Apply at irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin.

Monitor Your SSA Account

Create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov if you don't have one. Watch for unauthorized changes.

Contact Your Representatives

Call your House and Senate representatives. Ask them to support the Protecting Americans' Social Security Data Act.

References

Published: January 24, 2026