Marko Elez of DOGE Returns to U.S. Payroll
According to a recent court filing, the software engineer who was dismissed due to racist social media posts is now working as a Labor Department aide, assigned to several agencies.

Marko Elez, who Musk pledged to rehire following pushback from Trump allies regarding his firing, rejoined the administration in February as an employee of the Labor Department before being detailed to HHS on March 5. This information was confirmed earlier this week in responses to a court-ordered request for information related to an ongoing lawsuit.
In addition to his role at HHS, Elez is also detailed to the core staff of the Department of Government Efficiency at the White House, along with at least four other government agencies, according to documents submitted Saturday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Elez, 25, has access to systems that assist in enforcing child support orders, managing Medicare and Medicaid payments, and overseeing HHS contracts, as indicated by the court filings. Spokespeople for the White House, Labor Department, and HHS did not provide immediate comments on Saturday.
The information regarding Elez was part of the most comprehensive outline so far about DOGE’s access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive databases. This disclosure was made following a federal judge’s order for the administration to provide details regarding DOGE’s activities, related to a lawsuit filed in February by several labor unions and nonprofit organizations.
The lawsuit claims that federal agencies have granted the Musk-led group unauthorized access to sensitive private information. U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected the unions’ request for a restraining order to prevent DOGE from accessing such data but agreed to compel the administration to disclose further details about DOGE operations.
In a court document filed Saturday, lawyers from the liberal watchdog group Democracy Forward and the law firm Relman Colfax contended that the responses from the Trump administration to the discovery requests sanctioned by Bates improperly left out information about individuals publicly identified as DOGE staffers in news articles and interviews.
Nevertheless, the information about the DOGE team—and their access to a broad range of sensitive databases—was among the most extensive provided to date.
Some notable revelations include that DOGE’s Luke Farritor has access to 12 sensitive systems, which encompass those that manage Medicare and Medicaid payments, contracts, acquisitions, National Institutes of Health grants, and general HHS grants.
Kyle Schutt, an employee detailed to the General Services Administration, has access to a database concerning “Unaccompanied Alien Children.” Meanwhile, Amy Gleason, recognized by the White House as DOGE’s “acting administrator,” despite uncertainties around her actual role, has been involved in efforts to modernize Medicare and Medicaid payment systems.
The filings suggest that Gleason “exercises authority over detailing and deploying DOGE Employees to other agencies.”
“Whether an agency chooses to onboard a [DOGE] employee, or accept a detail, is up to that agency,” the administration highlighted.
During Elez’s earlier tenure at the Treasury, he breached the agency’s information security policies by transmitting a spreadsheet containing names and payment information to officials at the General Services Administration, as noted in court documents pertaining to another ongoing lawsuit in New York.
Camille Lefevre for TROIB News
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