DOGE visits NLRB after whistleblower report about data access

The ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency team is assigning two staffers to work at the independent agency where a whistleblower alleged Tuesday DOGE may have already removed sensitive labor data from its systems.

“The representatives have requested information about agency operations but asked us to remove any personally identifiable information from documents we provide,” the email reads. “Consistent with the President’s Executive Order and applicable laws, the Agency will comply with DOGE’s requests for access and information.”

“DOGE coming into the building with access to systems prior to an investigation is a major red flag — what are they doing now? Someone needs to step in, isolate the systems, and conduct an investigation,” said Andrew Bakaj of the noofit Whistleblower Aid, who is Berulis’s attorney.

Despite the claims made by agency officials this week, Berulis’ whistleblower disclosure shared with Congress and other federal overseers provides evidence of DOGE’s access and activities, including the creation and deletion of an account in NLRB’s cloud systems called “DogeSA_2d5c3e0446f9@nlrb.microsoft.com.”

Berulis noticed a chunk of data leaving the NLRB NxGen case management system, then a large spike in outbound traffic leaving the network. The NxGen system contains personal information about union members or employees voting to join a union, witness testimony in ongoing cases and trade secrets and proprietary data about companies involved in the agency’s investigations. Access to that data is protected by numerous federal laws, including the Privacy Act.

Several companies run by Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump ally and de facto head of DOGE, have cases before the NLRB — as do Musk’s competitors. His SpaceX company is also part of a lawsuit seeking to have the courts declare the agency’s structure as unconstitutional.

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., expressed concern that DOGE “may be engaged in technological malfeasance and illegal activity,” in a letter sent to two independent labor watchdogs.

The letter asks the inspectors general to answer a number of questions regarding ways DOGE may have potentially violated federal law, including any NLRB networks DOGE staffers had access to and what records of DOGE’s work within NLRB systems exist.

Berulis’ whistleblower’s disclosure is the latest in a pattern of legal questions around DOGE’s virtually unfettered access to personal and financial data kept in different databases across the federal government, and concerns about what DOGE is doing with that data.

In more than a dozen federal court cases, DOGE and the Trump administration have largely failed to give consistent and clear answers about who has access to the data and how that access complies with privacy and cybersecurity protections in place.

Have information or evidence to share about DOGE’s access to data inside the federal government? Reach out to the author, Jenna McLaughlin, through encrypted communications on Signal at jennamclaughlin.54. Stephen Fowler is available on Signal at stphnfwlr.25. Please use a nonwork device.