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Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data

115 points by mdhb 9mo ago

mdhb 9mo ago
Because the headline underplays it quite a bit the actual story here is that the Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results.
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
  > a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results Guesses as to what they were looking for?
- dang 9mo ago
  Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46700527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46700527.
bediger4000 9mo ago
Wow this is bad. Will there be any accountability?
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
  > Will there be any accountability? FTA: "SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act." Probably nothing under this administration. But there is a paper trail–now cited in public–for folks in the future to pursue. In the meantime, I'm curious what civil damages they may be liable for.
  - toomanyrichies 9mo ago
    Not only will there be no punitive action taken by this admin, but I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration, for any and all actions they may have taken, before his term is out. I hope I’m wrong, but in his 5 years as President he has yet to display any hint of restraint or ethical compass, so I would be very surprised if this doesn’t happen. EDIT: “to punitive action” => “no punitive action”
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    - galleywest200 9mo ago
      Surely they must have committed some state crimes, which are not pardonable by the president.
    - JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
      > I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration I expect he will. At that point, Biden will have pardoned his son for felony gun and tax crimes, as well as pioneered the preëmptive pardon, while Trump will have pardoned violent insurrections, drug lords, fraudsters and his corrupt inner circle. If that isn’t enough to build consensus on striking pardon power from the Constitution entirely, I don’t know what will be.
      - CamperBob2 9mo ago
        Question: what kind of father would fail to protect his son from an endless bullshit performative Republican inquisition that we all know would have happened?
        simmerup 9mo ago
        Especially considering Trump is an obvious vindictive, narcissistic bully who would love to torment Biden
        CamperBob2 9mo ago
        Exactly, that's my point. It's silly to play the game in good faith when you know damned well that you're the only one doing so. At the time Biden promised not to pardon his son, it still seemed vanishingly unlikely that we'd re-elect Trump, and in fact he hadn't even been nominated yet. So many things changed between June and December 2024. The country's wheels came off, and the undercarriage dragged on the road and caught fire.
- jfengel 9mo ago
  According to the OSC: https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/Press%20Release/OSC%20Advisory%20Opinion%20Rescinding%20May%2020%202024%20Advisory.pdf https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/Press%20Release/OSC... Violations are sent to the President for disciplinary action. So, no.
  - JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
    Which in practice means he has (more) lackeys loyal to him on pain of criminal prosecution.
- defrost 9mo ago
  Pam Bondi's already tasked with assembling a crack team of WWW legal interns to gaslight and ignore the issue as we type.
antibull 9mo ago
[dead]
montroser 9mo ago
> Shapiro also revealed that despite prior assertions in court, SSA’s DOGE team members “were using links to share data through the third-party server ‘Cloudflare.’” Wreckless incompetence at the highest levels of government.
- CamperBob2 9mo ago
  Wreckless incompetence at the highest levels of government You mean reckless incompetence. There was plenty of wrecking.
  - montroser 9mo ago
    Yes, you are right!
banga 9mo ago
The dogs of DOGE Whining for relevance Shit on everything
N_Lens 9mo ago
I think there's an unprecedented level of lawbreaking and disregard for consequences by this administration. So far they haven't been held to account, it remains to be seen if they ever will.
JohnTHaller 9mo ago
Link for when flagged: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/20/trump-musk-doge-social-security-00737245 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/20/trump-musk-doge-soc...
donkey_brains 9mo ago
Wow, this is bad. Almost as bad as that time Hunter Biden got his laptop stolen am I right? /s
LastTrain 9mo ago
Why is this flagged? It is a security breach.
- soco 8mo ago
  There might be a population overlap, or at least ideology overlap, between doge and hn.
antiochIst 8mo ago
You can track how this story spread from CNN at 3:32 PM as first to report, then whistleblower.org, peters.senate.gov, and eventually scienceblog.com and democracydocket.com. Yandori shows 54 sources picked it up with 48 citations: https://yandori.io/news-flow/story/2026-01-20-9734134-trump-administration-admits-doge-may-have-misused- https://yandori.io/news-flow/story/2026-01-20-9734134-trump-...

115 points by mdhb 9mo ago

mdhb 9mo ago

Because the headline underplays it quite a bit the actual story here is that the Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results.

JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
> a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results Guesses as to what they were looking for?
dang 9mo ago
Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46700527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46700527.

bediger4000 9mo ago

Wow this is bad. Will there be any accountability?

JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
> Will there be any accountability? FTA: "SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act." Probably nothing under this administration. But there is a paper trail–now cited in public–for folks in the future to pursue. In the meantime, I'm curious what civil damages they may be liable for.
- toomanyrichies 9mo ago
  Not only will there be no punitive action taken by this admin, but I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration, for any and all actions they may have taken, before his term is out. I hope I’m wrong, but in his 5 years as President he has yet to display any hint of restraint or ethical compass, so I would be very surprised if this doesn’t happen. EDIT: “to punitive action” => “no punitive action”
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - galleywest200 9mo ago
    Surely they must have committed some state crimes, which are not pardonable by the president.
  - JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
    > I fully expect Trump to extend the current flurry of lame-duck pardons to most if not all members of his administration I expect he will. At that point, Biden will have pardoned his son for felony gun and tax crimes, as well as pioneered the preëmptive pardon, while Trump will have pardoned violent insurrections, drug lords, fraudsters and his corrupt inner circle. If that isn’t enough to build consensus on striking pardon power from the Constitution entirely, I don’t know what will be.
    - CamperBob2 9mo ago
      Question: what kind of father would fail to protect his son from an endless bullshit performative Republican inquisition that we all know would have happened?
      - simmerup 9mo ago
        Especially considering Trump is an obvious vindictive, narcissistic bully who would love to torment Biden
        CamperBob2 9mo ago
        Exactly, that's my point. It's silly to play the game in good faith when you know damned well that you're the only one doing so. At the time Biden promised not to pardon his son, it still seemed vanishingly unlikely that we'd re-elect Trump, and in fact he hadn't even been nominated yet. So many things changed between June and December 2024. The country's wheels came off, and the undercarriage dragged on the road and caught fire.
jfengel 9mo ago
According to the OSC: https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/Press%20Release/OSC%20Advisory%20Opinion%20Rescinding%20May%2020%202024%20Advisory.pdf https://osc.gov/Documents/Public%20Files/Press%20Release/OSC... Violations are sent to the President for disciplinary action. So, no.
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
  Which in practice means he has (more) lackeys loyal to him on pain of criminal prosecution.
defrost 9mo ago
Pam Bondi's already tasked with assembling a crack team of WWW legal interns to gaslight and ignore the issue as we type.

antibull 9mo ago

[dead]

montroser 9mo ago

> Shapiro also revealed that despite prior assertions in court, SSA’s DOGE team members “were using links to share data through the third-party server ‘Cloudflare.’” Wreckless incompetence at the highest levels of government.

CamperBob2 9mo ago
Wreckless incompetence at the highest levels of government You mean reckless incompetence. There was plenty of wrecking.
- montroser 9mo ago
  Yes, you are right!

banga 9mo ago

The dogs of DOGE Whining for relevance Shit on everything

N_Lens 9mo ago

I think there's an unprecedented level of lawbreaking and disregard for consequences by this administration. So far they haven't been held to account, it remains to be seen if they ever will.

JohnTHaller 9mo ago

Link for when flagged: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/20/trump-musk-doge-social-security-00737245 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/20/trump-musk-doge-soc...

donkey_brains 9mo ago

Wow, this is bad. Almost as bad as that time Hunter Biden got his laptop stolen am I right? /s

LastTrain 9mo ago

Why is this flagged? It is a security breach.

soco 8mo ago
There might be a population overlap, or at least ideology overlap, between doge and hn.

antiochIst 8mo ago

You can track how this story spread from CNN at 3:32 PM as first to report, then whistleblower.org, peters.senate.gov, and eventually scienceblog.com and democracydocket.com. Yandori shows 54 sources picked it up with 48 citations: https://yandori.io/news-flow/story/2026-01-20-9734134-trump-administration-admits-doge-may-have-misused- https://yandori.io/news-flow/story/2026-01-20-9734134-trump-...