⚖️ DOGE misused Social Security data

In partnership with

The DOGE-SSA Data Controversy

The ongoing legal drama surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a sharp turn on January 16, 2026, when the Department of Justice filed a series of corrections that confirmed long-standing fears about data integrity at the Social Security Administration (SSA). According to these filings, at least two DOGE members embedded within the agency bypassed official security protocols to communicate with a partisan advocacy group—identified in subsequent reports as True the Vote—to help them analyze voter rolls in an effort to overturn election results. This coordination culminated in the signing of a "Voter Data Agreement" in March 2025, a document that SSA leadership claims it was entirely unaware of until a routine internal review in November of that year. The situation is further complicated by the discovery that DOGE staff used Cloudflare, an unauthorized third-party server, to share sensitive information, leaving the agency unable to determine if the data still exists or who has accessed it.

The Hatch Act and Partisan Interference

The fallout from these revelations has shifted from a matter of IT compliance to a potential criminal investigation, as the SSA has officially referred the involved DOGE employees to the Office of Special Counsel for violations of the Hatch Act. This 1939 law serves as a firewall between federal service and partisan politics, explicitly prohibiting government employees from using their official authority to interfere with an election. The DOJ's filing detailed an encrypted, password-protected file sent to Steve Davis, a senior DOGE adviser, which is believed to contain the names and addresses of approximately 1,000 individuals derived directly from SSA's internal systems. While the administration originally downplayed these concerns, the admission that DOGE members may have engaged in "fishing expeditions" for voter fraud while holding administrative access has sparked a fierce backlash from House Democrats, led by John Larson and Richard Neal, who are now calling for federal prosecutions.

The Borges Allegations

For many observers, this filing serves as a late-stage vindication for Charles "Chuck" Borges, the former Chief Data Officer of the SSA who was forced to resign in August 2025 after sounding the alarm. Borges had previously alleged that DOGE representatives created a "live copy" of the agency's master database—containing the sensitive personal information of over 300 million Americans—and moved it to a cloud environment that lacked federal oversight or access tracking. While the SSA initially rejected these claims as inaccurate, the recent court documents concede that DOGE staff indeed bypassed established safeguards and may have even flouted a Temporary Restraining Order issued by Judge Ellen Hollander that was meant to block their access during the peak of the 2025 legal battle. As the case moves back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the central question has shifted from whether DOGE can help the government save money to whether the personal privacy of every American was traded for political leverage.

In addition to our newsletter we offer 60+ free legal templates for companies in the UK, Canada and the US. These include employment contracts, investment agreements and more