Michael Hernandez
February 17, 2025•Update: February 17, 2025
WASHINGTON
A pair of top Democratic senators penned a letter to the IRS on Monday, warning the American tax agency that tech billionaire Elon Musk's government commission may be violating US law by accessing the agency's taxpayer record.
Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, wrote to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell demanding copies of any memorandum granting agents of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to IRS systems.
"According to public reports, the White House is pressuring the IRS to agree to a memorandum of understanding (“the MOU”) which would give software engineers working for Elon Musk at DOGE broad access to IRS systems, property and datasets which include the private tax return information of hundreds of millions of American citizens and businesses," Wyden and Warren wrote.
"It appears the MOU proposes giving DOGE team members access to the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System (“IDRS”), raising serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda," they added
The IDRS is a critical IRS system that holds sensitive information for all taxpayers, including individuals and businesses. Users can research account information and request returns, generate notices and enter transactions, according to information posted on the agency's website.
Gavin Kliger, a young software engineer who now works for DOGE, was on-site at the IRS on Thursday, and while the department continues to work out the exact terms of his work, he is expected to be given a wide berth, according to reporting from the New York Times newspaper.
