Only about half the number of people working for President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency reportedly have previous ties to Elon Musk.
Trump named Musk to head the advisory DOGE, which has been tasked with finding ways to streamline government and reduce spending.
Democrats have been irate over the access given to DOGE, which has discovered much alleged wasteful spending.
DOGE staffers have sought access to sensitive data while investigating at least 15 government agencies, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Although the names of DOGE employees have not been disclosed, the Post identified more than 30 people working for or closely with it by probing internal directories of the agencies and interviewing various federal workers.
About half of those identified have ties to Musk or his companies. These are a few:
- Luke Farritor, 23, a recent intern at SpaceX
- Steve Davis, president of Musk's tunneling company, Boring Co. Davis
- Amanda Scales, who worked at xAI
- Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla software engineer
NPR reported that Tom Krause, CEO of the Cloud Software Group, and Riccardo Biasini, who worked at Tesla and the Boring Company, also are working for DOGE.
The Post reported Musk’s allies have established their strongest footholds at the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, and the Treasury.
OPM oversees the federal workforce, GSA controls real estate and logistics, and the Treasury Department manages the nation’s finances.
DOGE staffers who do not have clear ties to Musk include Noah Peters, 39, an attorney who worked at the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
At least 10 DOGE employees are engineers, and at least six DOGE engineers are 25 or younger, the Post said.
Some DOGE employees have received official government credentials, including official email addresses, at multiple agencies.
"Great coordination across 35 agencies over the last two days to terminate 199 wasteful contracts saving ~$250mm, including: - Contract for 'Asia Pacific - Sri Lanka climate change mitigation adaption and resilience coordinator services for forest service' - Workshop for 'Intercultural communication diversity dialogue circle communicating across differences,'" DOGE posted Friday night on X.
The scope of DOGE's work likely will hinge on the outcome of what could become dozens of lawsuits challenging the group’s power, NPR reported. Some of those cases could end up being decided by the Supreme Court.