Former officials say DOGE sought sensitive data

Erie Meyer and Merici Vinton were senior officials at two agencies targeted by Elon Musk's team as they arrived in DC, Meyer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Vinton at the Internal Revenue Service. What was it like for you when you first heard Elon Musk, he's going to come in. He's going to run the Department of Government Efficiency. I thought, great, more people who want to show up and fix things.

Their optimism quickly vanished on Inauguration Day. And then that night, we started receiving meeting invites to meet our new DOGE colleagues the following day. It was clear that they really didn't know what we did.

In an audio recording obtained by CBS News, members of the DOGE team grilled their new colleagues but refused to talk about their plans.

We were told this is supposed to be a one-way interview.

OK.

So we're not supposed to go into details.

Just as he did at Twitter, Musk began purging staff, employing a mix of voluntary resignations and mass firings. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!

It became completely absurd. The richest man in the world is now showing up, sleeping on the floor of a government agency.

She says Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old member of the Musk team, showed up at the IRS with a chilling demand. He wanted access to the personal data Americans share when they fill out their tax returns. Including systems that would be able to say where you could actually edit it, and you could actually go in and zero out your own tax liability. And IRS employees would say, that's not legal. It's not in statute. Gavin said, well, just imagine that there are no laws.

Kliger declined an interview, but a DOGE source denied he made those comments or ever sought access to sensitive, protected taxpayer data. DOGE insisted on god-tier access to the data at my agency.

Erie Meyer says DOGE landed at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau demanding access to sensitive information about companies being investigated by the watchdog. Not only do I have questions about the financial conflicts of those people, I also am concerned about the security implications.

A White House official told CBS News DOGE staff followed all data privacy rules of the agency where they worked and that the only interests being served were those of the American people. Jo Ling Kent, CBS News, Washington.

You can watch the new CBS Reports documentary, Is America in a New GildedAge? streaming tomorrow on CBS News 24/7. We'll be right back.