Update (0942ET): Well, well, well - DOGE moves into the Treasury, triggering their longest-serving, highest-ranked career official to quit in a huff, and they find that department has essentially been auto-paying everyone, according to Elon Musk.
"The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups," said Musk in a Friday night tweet.
"They literally never denied a payment in their entire career."
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The Treasury Department's highest-ranking career official quit after a clash with aides of Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to the Washington Post, citing (of course), three anonymous sources.
David A. Lebryk, a decades-long Treasury official who President Trump named as acting secretary upon taking office last week, announced his retirement in a Friday email to colleagues. According to the report, Lebryk had a dispute with Musk surrogates over access to the US government's payment system used to disburse trillions of dollars every year.
[Imagine Musk and team uncover decades of improper payments and shady dealings?]
The Musk surrogates are affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and have been asking since the election for access to the system, according to the report. The requests were reiterated after Trump's inauguration.
After Trump pick Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury Secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be acting agency head.
The payment system in question is run by a handful of career officials within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service - which controls the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses, and other entities nationwide - and includes Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, tax refunds, grant recipients, and more.
The clash is the latest incident involving career 'deep state' bureaucrats vs. the Trump administration. And of course, WaPo, the CIA's favorite tentacle, frames it as follows:
The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.
Unfortunately for the career bureaucrats, Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to ensure DOGE has "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems," which appear to include the Treasury payment systems.
Musk has previously slammed rising national debt as an existential threat to the country, while DOGE has already made progress in rooting out bullshit programs established by Democrat administrations.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treasury-depts-highest-ranking-career-official-rage-quits-after-musks-doge-team-probes
