A 25-year-old DOGE staffer who resigned over racist posts is back in government with new access to sensitive systems
A 25-year-old DOGE staffer who resigned after being linked to a social media account that shared racist posts is officially back on the government's payroll. According to court filings, Marko Elez now has access to sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor.
Elez resigned from his role at DOGE in early February after a report from the Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted account that shared posts including one claiming he was "racist before it was cool."
The account also reportedly shared a post calling to normalize 'Indian hate,' and another that suggested Gaza and Israel be 'wiped off the face of the Earth." At the time, the White House confirmed to the Journal that Elez had resigned from his government role.
However, the recent court filings reveal Elez is still working as a Labor Department aide in connection with DOGE. The court documents state Elez had been detailed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since March 5 and is also assigned to the United States Digital Service (USDS).
Elez has access to several sensitive systems within the Department of Health and Human Services including the National Directory of New Hires and the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS), which is primarily used to manage and track payments related to Medicare and Medicaid programs.
At the Department of Labor, Elez had access to four more sensitive systems: USAccess, DOL Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, DOL Directory Resource Administrator (DRA), and Unemployment Insurance Data and Related Records. The court filing notes he is the only DOL employee who has an employment relationship with DOGE and has been granted permission to access sensitive systems at the agency.
Elez has also installed two programs onto DOL systems: a code editor called Visual Studio Code and Python, a programming language, according to court filings.
The Department of Labor said it was aware Elez was simultaneously assigned to or employed by another four agencies, not including USDS.
Representatives for DOGE, the Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
The 25-year-old was working in the United States Department of the Treasury when the Wall Street Journal linked him to the racist account.
After the news broke, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and U.S. President Donald Trump advocated for Elez's reinstatement. Musk polled X users on whether he should bring back the DOGE staffer after making 'inappropriate statements" while Vance said in a post on X he didn't think "stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life."
'We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,' Vance said. 'So I say bring him back. If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.'
Trump later said he was 'with the vice president' when questioned about Elez and Vance's response during a news conference.
Elez's brief stint at the Treasury also made headlines after it was revealed he was "mistakenly" given edit access over the department's payment systems. In an affidavit, a Treasury official stated that Elez was 'mistakenly' given 'read/write permissions instead of read-only' in an error that was 'promptly corrected.' The edit permissions were granted during Elez's supervised, walk-through session, and an initial investigation found that 'no unauthorized actions had taken place,' the official said.
In a separate court filing, another federal official said that Elez violated Treasury policies by emailing a spreadsheet containing personal information to two other members of the Trump administration. The official said he sent the sensitive information unencrypted and without prior approval, violating the Bureau of the Fiscal Service's policies on handling sensitive information.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
12 minutes ago
- CNBC
Asia markets set to open mixed after Trump vows to significantly raise tariffs on India
Bombay Gate Gateway of India, Mumbai Arutthaphon Poolsawasd | Moment | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets are expected to open mixed after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to raise tariffs on Indian exports to the country significantly. "India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits," Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social. "They don't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA," he continued. Happy Tuesday from Singapore. Asia markets are poised for a mixed open. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was set to start the day higher with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,701, compared with its last close of 8,663.70. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Osaka last traded at 40,610 against the index's last close of 40,290.70. However, futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index stood at 24,708 pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's last close of 24,733.45. — Lee Ying Shan All the three major averages soared into the green on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recouping its losses from Friday's session. The blue-chip index climbed 585.06 points, or 1.34%, to finish the day at 44,173.64. Additionally, the broad market S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rocketed higher by 1.47% and 1.95%, ending at 6,329.94 and 21,053.58, respectively. — Sean Conlon
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Kaul joins multistate suit claiming Trump has sought to deter care of transgender youths
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joined a multistate lawsuit Aug. 1 suing the Trump administration for "relentlessly, cruelly and unlawfully" targeting transgender people. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, comes six months after Kaul vowed to pursue legal actions should the federal government attempt to impede funding for gender-affirming health care. Recent federal actions have sought to deter health care providers from treating transgender patients under the age of 19, despite states like Wisconsin having laws in place that allow for medically appropriate procedures. President Donald Trump's Jan. 28 order oversteps its authority, the lawsuit states, by intimidating providers through threats of civil and criminal prosecution. The lawsuit emphasizes the order not only "has no basis in law" but is unconstitutional. Ultimately, the lawsuit is requesting the court to block the administration's actions and cease enforcing the order. 'The Trump administration shouldn't be interfering with the provision of health care,' Kaul said in a press release last week. 'The administration should be respecting individual liberty and equal rights, not shamefully targeting transgender people.' Trump's directive, signed early in his second term, aims to strip funds from medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care, and would require federal health programs like Medicaid and TRICARE (for military families) to exclude coverage of gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for young people by 2026. Gender-affirming medical care supports people whose gender identity is out of sync with the sex they were assigned at birth. Health care may include the use of hormones to delay puberty in adolescents, behavioral health counseling to support and promote the gender identity with which a person aligns, and hormone replacement therapy. In very rare cases for young people, it may involve surgery. Access to gender-affirming services has been associated with lower suicide risks for transgender people. Research has also shown that people encountering anti-transgender bias and a denial of services had more than double the prevalence of suicide attempts than those who didn't have such experiences, according to the Williams Institute. The attorneys general warn the administration's tactics have had a chilling effect on states' ability to provide gender-affirming services. Despite protective laws being on the books, health care providers have already scaled back the services they offer to transgender youth. Other gender clinics have shuttered services completely in an attempt to avoid civil or criminal investigations and actions. Joining Kaul in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania. Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@ or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin AG Kaul joins suit claiming Trump deters transgender care Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
DOGE continues to say it's slashing costs but cuts are fraction of what's claimed, CBS News analysis finds
The spotlight may have moved off the Department of Government Efficiency since the departure of Elon Musk, but the Trump administration's DOGE continues to post about cost cutting on its so-called "wall of receipts." And once again, some of its claims about savings appear to be significantly overstated, according to a CBS News review. The review of three of the largest cuts claimed so far indicates the savings from those contracts are less than 3% of what DOGE said they were. On July 27, DOGE added 705 canceled contracts to the website it uses to track and declare savings from the agency's cost cutting across the federal government, among them three of the largest claimed cuts posted since President Trump launched DOGE in January. The three contracts — all from the Department of Health and Human Services — funded COVID-19 testing and treatment for people who were uninsured or underinsured during the pandemic. DOGE claims canceling those contracts saved $6.4 billion. But CBS News' review of transaction records indicates the actual savings is just a small fraction of that — around $165 million. That's about how much in obligated funds were left unspent in the three contracts by the time Mr. Trump took office and DOGE was launched. There was nearly $7 billion that remained, but this figure represented a ceiling that federal contracting experts say is rarely reached. DOGE adjusted down that total potential value by a combined $6.4 billion — and then reported it as savings. But with the pandemic long over and the contracts set to expire on May 31 of this year, it is highly unlikely the contractors, which included Walgreens and CVS, would have spent anywhere near that sum on COVID-19 testing and treatment. The spending "was never going to reach this number," said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, referring to the total potential value. "You didn't have to terminate this contract, you are the government — just don't obligate any more money." Since it was launched, multiple news outlets including CBS News have reported that DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" has at times vastly overstated the amount of funds cut and discovered numerous errors in the group's accounting. DOGE now claims it has saved $52.2 billion – just from contracts canceled. Malkus, who analyzed the actual implications of the cancellations rather than the ceiling values, puts the number closer to $17.8 billion. But that would only be if Congress agreed to rescind the funds that it had already voted to spend. The DOGE website reports a grand total of $199 billion saved, when factoring in real estate lease cancellations and other cuts such as personnel reductions. However, it provides no documentation for roughly half of that amount. According to DOGE, the savings equate to $1,236.02 per person in the U.S. "The amount they have per person is fiction," Malkus said. "It's transparency theater." HHS did not respond to a CBS News request for comment about the three contracts. The White House redirected the request to the General Services Administration, which declined to comment. A substantial portion of those purported savings is a result of cuts to USAID. A recent study in the medical journal The Lancet says those cuts could come with a human toll. By the study's estimates, the loss in humanitarian aid could lead to 14 million deaths in children younger than 5 years of age by 2030. Malkus told CBS News, "Their claims are generally to say, 'Hey this is a lot of pain, but it's worth it.'" The update is only the second since Musk, who launched DOGE, departed from his role in the White House advising Mr. Trump. Shortly before Musk's term as a special government employee expired, he told reporters, "This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning." "The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE influence will only grow stronger," he said from the Oval Office on May 30, adding that he was confident over time DOGE would cull $1 trillion in savings. It's unclear exactly how DOGE has functioned since then. In late June, The Washington Post reported that federal officials were instructed to stop routing the grant-making process through DOGE, revoking control of the online clearinghouse for all grant opportunities from the group. In DOGE's latest update, only one additional canceled grant was added. Several DOGE-associated government employees have left in recent weeks, including the Department of the Interior's Tyler Hassen, whose last day was Friday, The New York Times reported. Hassen was originally hired as a DOGE staffer, and then was later tasked with trimming costs at the Interior Department, where he was named principal deputy assistant secretary of the interior. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had allowed him broad authority to make cuts to budgets and staffing, and under his watch, a DOGE-associated employee made the claim that a single survey costing $1 billion dollars had been cut. That claim was repeated by Elon Musk and Burgum, but no evidence was ever supplied to back it up.
