Men claiming to be from DOGE at San Francisco City Hall were wearing cryptocurrency t-shirts
Officials with the San Francisco Sheriff's Office on Tuesday confirmed that three men claiming to work for the Department of Government Efficiency who demanded information from city officials last week were wearing t-shirts for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
The sheriff's office issued the update Tuesday afternoon, saying the incident that happened at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, Feb. 14, remained under investigation.
On Friday, authorities in San Francisco said they were investigating the incident that happened at City Hall at around noon. The men went to several offices and demanded employees turn over digital information "related to alleged wasteful government spending and fraud."
In the update, authorities said the "individuals demanded access to office computers and handed over a USB drive to employees to upload information." It also noted that the thee men "were verbally aggressive" and insulted staff." When the men couldn't produce any credentials proving they were from DOGE, the employees "did not comply with the men's requests."
The new details about what the men were wearing came from City Hall surveillance footage, the release said.
"Upon review of City Hall surveillance footage, it appears that the men were wearing DOGECOIN (a cryptocurrency) t-shirts and non-descriptive hats. Due to the ongoing investigation, no further information will be released at this time," the statement read.
Dogecoin was a cryptocurrency developed as a joke by software engineers in late 2013 and is commonly referred to as the first "meme coin."
The original report from authorities indicated the men were wearing hats with the pro-Trump slogan "Make America Great Again," while the update indicated that was not the case. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, the sheriff's office said no further details were being released at this time.
The new information comes the same day a federal judge declined to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing data systems at seven federal agencies and firing or putting their employees on leave. California Attorney General Rob Bonta was among 14 attorneys general who filed a lawsuit last week challenging Musk and DOGE's authority to access sensitive government data.
Operating under the direction of billionaire Elon Musk, DOGE was created by President Trump through an executive order he signed shortly after his inauguration with the stated mission of slashing federal spending.
According to social media posts from the task force and Musk, DOGE is seeking to identify federal contracts and spending on issues that don't align with Mr. Trump's policies, including DEI and foreign aid.
