Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent corrected Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters during a House Financial Services Committee hearing after she accused him of giving “strangers" access to sensitive data at the department.
“What you did was you let these strangers into our Treasury with access to all of the data, all of the personnel information,” Waters said Wednesday. “And you just opened the door. Why’d you do that?”
“No ma’am. They were Treasury employees,” Bessent responded.
When asked about Marko Elez, the “25-year-old…who worked for Elon Musk,” Bessent confirmed “he was a Treasury employee, as was Tom Krause, the senior person on the DOGE team.”
“There were only two people and they were granted—”
“There were DOGE employees also, do you know,” Waters interjected. “Were you aware that there were DOGE employees coming into our Treasury getting all of our personal information?”
"Well ma'am, there is no such thing as a DOGE employee, they were Treasury employees," he reiterated.
"I tend to disagree with you based on the information I have," she replied.
MUST WATCH: @SecScottBessent shuts down Fake News Hoaxes peddled by @RepMaxineWaters:
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 7, 2025
"You let these strangers into our Treasury with access to all of the data..."
"No, ma'am. They were Treasury employees." pic.twitter.com/CS0YhHDNOW
In February, the Treasury Department responded to concerns from some members of Congress about the “operational efficiency assessment” of payment systems being conducted.
"To be clear, the agency responsible for making the payment always drives the payment process," the letter stated. "Currently, Treasury staff members working with Tom Krause, a Treasury employee, will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment. This is similar to the kind of access that Treasury provides to individuals reviewing Treasury systems, such as auditors, and that follows practices associated with protecting the integrity of the systems and business processes."
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