Treasury Dept. gives Elon Musk’s team access to federal payment system: sources

Treasury Department has given Elon Musk and representatives of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Team Access to the large federal payment system responsible for dealing with trillions of dollars in public spending, several sources who are familiar with the case told ABC News.

The payment system – which is essentially a checkbook for the entire federal government – is a close held operation run by career officials, with a limited number of people authorized to access the information provided it contains sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans.

The demand for access to the payment system allegedly caused such a gap inside the Treasury that the career employee, who previously monitored what David Lebrik, was placed on administrative leave last week after he opposed giving Musk and his government -efficiency team access to the database.

On Friday, Lebrik told colleagues at the department he would retire, sources told ABC News.

If Musk or his team were to try to block these payments, it would probably have legal challenges as the money is approved by Congress.

Sources said that if Musk or his representatives were to request changes to the system, such requests would be subject to an internal review process from the Ministry of Finance’s officials.

In a letter to Finance Minister Scott Bessent, Senator Ron Wyden said, the ranked Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee that any “politically motivated interference” in the payment systems “risk serious harm to our country and the economy.”

“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated interference with them risk serious damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that after the federal grants and loan freezing earlier this week, these affiliated Officials, with Musk may intend to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs, ”Wyden wrote in a letter Friday night.

“I can’t think of any good reason why political operators who have demonstrated an obvious ignoring the law would need access to these sensitive, mission -critical systems,” Wyden wrote.

Spokespersons for DOGE, The White House and Treasury did not respond to a request for comment.