{"id":38099,"date":"2025-02-05T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38099"},"modified":"2025-02-05T20:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T02:52:37","slug":"trump-musk-purge-scandal-at-treasury-takes-yet-another-unsettling-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38099","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Musk Purge Scandal at Treasury Takes Yet Another Unsettling Turn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Treasury Department offers some new spin about Elon Musk\u2019s takeover of payment systems and ousting of a top career official, Senator Ron Wyden tells us why this \u201creeks of a cover-up.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to tamp down the outcry around Elon Musk\u2019s autocratic<\/u><\/a> and illegal<\/u><\/a> power grabs, the Treasury Department has sent a new letter<\/u><\/a> to Congress that casts Musk\u2019s takeover of the agency in benign terms. The letter suggests Musk\u2019s access to Treasury\u2019s payment systems\u2014which was granted<\/u><\/a> by President Trump; the systems are the conduit<\/u><\/a> for $6 trillion in annual government payments to an enormous range of recipients\u2014merely amounts to an innocent \u201caudit\u201d process, portraying this as part of a broad government reform agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if this letter is genuinely designed to address public alarm about these arrangements, it fails pretty miserably. In fact, the letter\u2019s sheer evasiveness makes this scandal look worse. The letter has been dutifully noted by news reports, but it\u2019s worth a closer read because it illustrates the range of questions that the administration will not<\/em> answer about Musk\u2019s arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis letter reeks of a cover-up,\u201d Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, told me. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t pass the smell test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top-line claim in Treasury\u2019s letter\u2014which is a response to a January 31 letter<\/u><\/a> from Wyden posing questions about Musk\u2014is that this access is \u201cread-only.\u201d It says that a tech executive named Tom Krause\u2014a member of Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency\u2014has this \u201cread-only access\u201d to \u201ccoded data\u201d of Treasury\u2019s payment systems, to undertake a review of the systems to enhance their efficiency and integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExpanding on efforts that began under the prior administration, Treasury has been undergoing a review of these systems,\u201d the letter says, adding that this review \u201cis not resulting in the suspension\u201d of any payments that Treasury is making. Krause has been designated as a \u201cSpecial Government Employee,\u201d it continues, meaning he\u2019s subject<\/u><\/a> to some but not all ethics rules, and his review is being conducted \u201cin coordination with veteran career Treasury officials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Musk\u2019s access merely expands on a process begun under President Biden, and contrary to critics\u2019 fears, it isn\u2019t empowering Musk or his team to go rogue inside the agency or turn off any congressionally authorized government payments at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all this raises immediate questions. First, why is someone on Musk\u2019s DOGE being given access to coded data on Treasury\u2019s payment systems in the first place? If this were a mere expansion of a previous review process, why didn\u2019t Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assign one of those \u201cveteran career officials\u201d to oversee it, as opposed to granting it to someone who apparently answers to Musk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underscoring the point, Wyden said that his office has questioned former Treasury officials who are unaware of any previous Biden-era process that could be construed as the precursor to what we\u2019re seeing now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have no indication that this story about an ongoing audit of the payment system is legit,\u201d Wyden told me. \u201cThere is no good reason for political operatives to get into these systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also unanswered in Treasury\u2019s letter: What sort of access does Musk have to these data and systems via Krause? The White House has declared<\/u><\/a> that Musk is also a Special Government Employee. Does Musk have access to this data and these systems, and can he issue directives with regard to them via Krause\u2014who again is part of DOGE\u2014or not? Does Krause have the authority to override those career officials as part of this process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhat insultingly, the letter says nothing meaningful about Musk\u2019s<\/em> role. So naturally, none of these unknowns are addressed. Remember, the most senior career official at Treasury recently was purged<\/u><\/a> after protesting the access that DOGE officials had secured. Why would that have happened if this were an innocent expansion of a previous process under that same official?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they were really continuing a routine audit of the payment system without political interference,\u201d Wyden asked, \u201cwhy did the nonpartisan official who managed the system for years get forced out when Musk\u2019s hatchet brigade showed up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wyden said that he and his staff are currently trying to establish whether DOGE is planning to load this coded data into outside servers to employ artificial intelligence on it, as reports<\/u><\/a> have hinted is broadly being considered. Claiming that access to the data is \u201cread-only\u201d doesn\u2019t preclude this possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also worth looking at the questions in Wyden\u2019s January 31 letter that are not answered in Treasury\u2019s response: Why did Treasury grant DOGE officials access to its payment systems? What\u2019s the legal authority for granting this to DOGE officials in particular? Who are the full range of officials on DOGE that have access to them? Has Treasury vetted whether DOGE\u2019s access\u2014and Musk\u2019s access\u2014raises conflicts of interest, given Musk\u2019s extensive business holdings, particularly in China?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe possibilities for corruption are endless,\u201d Wyden said, pointing out that Musk, as a major government contractor, now has access to information about his \u201cdirect competitors.\u201d Wyden added: \u201cWhistleblowers are needed now more than any time in my time in public service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheer speed and scope of the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg can easily seduce us into believing that they\u2019re politically invincible, that the president\u2014and Republicans who are eagerly embracing all of it\u2014will never pay a political price for any of this lawlessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are signs that even people around Trump don\u2019t believe this. The administration rescinded his illegal funding freeze after a public outcry. Trump temporarily backed down<\/u><\/a> on his tariffs on Mexico. He has taken pains to say<\/u><\/a> that he exerts control over Musk. The White House designated Musk a Special Government Employee to defuse criticism of his undefined role. And now this letter from Treasury attempts to cast Musk\u2019s access as perfectly in keeping with standard practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk is plainly a political vulnerability for Trump. As William Kristol notes at The Bulwark<\/u><\/a>, recent polling shows not just majority public disapproval of Musk but also that the minority that approves of him continues to shrink. And a new poll<\/u><\/a> from Data for Progress and the Progressive Change Institute shows a slim majority is receptive to a message emphasizing how Musk\u2019s encroachments enhance his capacity for corrupt self-enrichment, while only a small minority see his business smarts as a benefit to taxpayers. Perhaps voters are not easily hypnotized by pro-Musk hagiography painting his tech wizardry as an asset the rest of us are lucky to benefit from, especially when the reality of his autocratic and lawless power grabs is spelled out for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this Treasury Department letter suggests, Trump and the White House don\u2019t have easy answers to help them spin away what we\u2019re all seeing unfold right before our eyes. Memo to large-D<\/em> and small-d<\/em> democrats alike: Keep hammering away at all these mounting questions, and don\u2019t let up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

newrepublic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Treasury Department offers some new spin about Elon Musk\u2019s takeover of payment systems and ousting of a top career official, Senator Ron Wyden tells us why this \u201creeks of a cover-up.\u201d In an effort to tamp down the outcry around Elon Musk\u2019s autocratic and illegal power grabs, the Treasury Department has sent a new letter to Congress that casts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32272,1388,3439,32273],"class_list":["post-38099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-purge","tag-scandal","tag-treasury","tag-trump-musk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38101,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38099\/revisions\/38101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}