The Trump administration temporarily appointed an “anti-fraud expert” at the head of social security, confirmed the White House on Tuesday after American media announced the resignation of its outgoing manager to avoid an showdown with the Commission led by Elon Musk.
• Read also: The Doge of Elon Musk will be able to access the data of American students, decides a judge
• Read also: Ukraine accuses Trump of “fueling Putin’s appetite”
This federal agency is notably responsible for distributing public pensions or disability pensions to its 68 million beneficiaries.
According to information from Washington Post Followed by other American media, Michelle King resigned last weekend so as not to have to authorize the American commission for government efficiency (DOGE) to access the files of the agency which include confidential information on million Americans.
According to these same sources, Michelle King has been working for decades for the agency for decades when she was appointed to her head in January, pending confirmation from Donald Trump’s candidate in this position, Frank Bisignano.
Pending this confirmation, the Social Security Agency will now be “led by an antifraude career expert appointed as an interim manager,” a spokesman for the White House, Harrison Fields on Tuesday.
According to an email sent to Social Security personnel on Monday and consulted by AFP, this temporary director is Leland Dudek, former responsible for the fight against fraud within the same organization.
AFP
“I will direct this agency in an open and transparent way,” he promised in the same email.
Elon Musk, advisor to President Donald Trump and the face of the DOGE commission, says that many frauds undermine the functioning of social security, including several million beneficiaries aged over a hundred years, without advancing detailed and public data.
The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, for his part, that the Doge suspects that “tens of millions of deceased” receive “fraudulent payments”.
“Social security has complete medical records of people who have requested disability services. She has our banking information, our income, the name and age of our children, and much more, ”warns Nancy Altman, president of the social association Security Works, marked on the left.
“We cannot insist too much on the gravity of this intrusion,” she adds.
Since the launch of the works of the DOGE, several dozen former civil servants have seized justice by accusing the members of the Commission of having illegally accessed the confidential data of Americans.
David Lebryk, former senior official of the Treasury Department, also resigned in January after refusing to transmit to the DOGE commission access to his vast secure payment system.
Disposed for its brutal methods, the Doge’s offensive is deemed illegal by the Democratic opposition, Mr. Musk with no electoral mandate or government portfolio.