CNN reported on Tuesday that they first learned, via their reporters, that members of the privacy team overseeing federal workers with security clearances were “quietly fired” under the Trump administration.
CNN’s first accuser of the firings at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for their FOIA request relates to “Submissions regarding Elon Musk’s security clearance… and anyone from DOGE who has been granted access to sensitive or classified government networks…”
In reaction to pitifully the filing of reporters on Elon Musk’s security clearance details, CNN received an email stating, “Good luck with that; they just fired the whole privacy team.” Musk’s security clearance sizes up in the media as the DOGE team gets to deal with sensitive information across the federal government.
CNN significantly goes on to say after the idea in a court filing by the White House that Musk is “not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or the U.S. DOGE Service temporary organization.”
Mr. Joshua Fisher head of the White House Office of Administration sought to clarify in his filing, “Mr. Musk is an employee of the White House Office.”
He works in that capacity as a Special Government Employee (SGE) and provides voluntary service. For this job, Mr. Musk serves as a Senior Advisor to the President. As Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk cannot be more powerful than other Senior White House Advisors. Mr. Musk, like other Senior White House Advisors, has no actual or formal decision-making authority within the government.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the Trump administration has quietly fired several members of its “privacy team” and other officials within the office that oversees hiring federal workers, taking a step that limits outside access to government records related to security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates.
CNN was among the first to report the firings at OPM in light of a Freedom of Information Act request for documents regarding security clearances associated with Musk and DOGE members with permission to access controlled government networks.
“Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team,” was the response to CNN’s FOIA request from an OPM email address.
Alongside the privacy team, members of the communications staff at OPM and employees who handle FOIA requests were fired, as two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Some of the terminations will not take effect until April 15, according to one of the sources.
An OPM official told CNN regarding the firings that the entire privacy team has not been laid off but offered no further comment.
OPM’s privacy team is tasked with ensuring that the data protection practices of the agency meet both legal requirements and public trust, its website states.
It has been thrust into the forefront of the Trump administration’s downsizing efforts in the federal sector agency allows the compilation of lists of probationary employees in several agencies across the board.
The action of firing the OPM privacy and communication team appeared to parallel Musk’s action in firing the entire media relations department at Twitter/X to allow press inquiries to generate back an automated “poop emoji” response.
Musk is reportedly using the same methodology to shrink the federal workforce as was employed at X after he took control of the social media platform: “They just closed the door and then decided who needed to be paid based on who complained externally and internally.”
Yet preventing outsiders from viewing DOGE staff-related government records directly contradicts Musk’s claims that he is trying to achieve as much transparency as possible.
So while firing the individuals who respond to requests may be a good way to stall, it is not going to relieve the government entirely of its obligation to produce public records under the law, and breaches are actionable under judicial penalty.
Meanwhile, a key Senate Democrat is pushing for an independent watchdog investigation into the legality and the scope of the agreement allowing Musk and his aides access to sensitive or classified government information in pursuit of their ongoing work to shrink the federal workforce, CNN reported last week.
Specifically, the letter from Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the legality behind the Trump administration’s designation of Musk and his associates as “special government employees,” noting that this designation does not “provide carte blanche access to government data and servers.”
“I concur with the opinion that Musk and other staff members should be bound by all kinds of conflict of interest laws, which prevents federal employees from taking part in matters that might affect their financial interests,” said Murphy in his letter to Eugene Dodaro, the comptroller general of the United States.
