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The US Treasury has sought to calm fears over Elon Musk’s access to its vast payments system, insisting no transactions have been cancelled, despite the billionaire’s claim to be “rapidly shutting down” remittances.
“The ongoing review of Treasury’s systems is not resulting in the suspension or rejection of any payment instructions submitted . . . by other federal agencies across the government,” Jonathan Blum, a principal deputy assistant secretary, wrote to members of Congress on Tuesday.
Blum said Treasury staff members working with emissaries from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) had been given limited, “read-only” access to the system, which disburses trillions of dollars each year, including social security payments.
The letter comes after Musk, whose Doge team have installed themselves in Treasury, vowed over the weekend to unilaterally cancel hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of government grants.
He claimed on his social media site X that his team were stopping “illegal payments”, apparently referring to a list of federal grants to Lutheran organisations that was posted online.
The world’s richest man, who bankrolled Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, had earlier justified his access to the system by claiming his team discovered “that payment approval officers . . . were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups”.
Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee, had written to the newly installed Treasury secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers on Musk’s access, saying: “I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”
In his response on Tuesday, Blum said a “review” of payments was being conducted by Cloud Software Group chief executive Tom Krause, a Doge emissary who has now become a “special government employee”.
Krause was “conducting this effort in co-ordination with veteran career Treasury officials, and all operational processes continue to be conducted only by career Treasury staff in accordance with all standard security, safety and privacy standards”, Blum added.
In response, Wyden said Trump and the Treasury were trying to “downplay the risks as Elon Musk seizes power” and claimed “nothing they’re saying is believable or trustworthy”.
“The American people can see what’s happening, and secretary Bessent is asking them not to believe what’s playing out right in front of their eyes,” Wyden added.
Don Hammond, a former longtime Treasury official, said that while he was not aware of the precise nature of the access granted to the Doge team, “improper access could affect payment integrity and sensitive data”.
Hammond said “a non-federal employee would have no accountability” for the actions they took when in charge of the payments system. But Hammond added that “the representations in the letter if accurate are reasonable and do reflect past practice.”
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington, Hannah Murphy in San Francisco and Stephen Foley in New York
