Category archive

Corruption & Self-Dealing

Emoluments violations, oligarch enrichment, DOGE overreach

Records in this lens

9 incidents

Musk's Private Bodyguards Deputized as Federal Agents Without Required Training

The deputization of Musk's private bodyguards as federal agents — with training requirements waived at White House request — represents an unprecedented merger of private security with federal law …

  • Members of Elon Musk's private security detail were deputized as U.S. Marshals in February 2025, at the request of the White House, to carry …
  • At least some members lacked the required 'basic law enforcement training program' completion and did not possess one year of law …

Epstein Files: DOJ Withholds Evidence, UN Experts Warn of Crimes Against Humanity

After signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Trump administration's DOJ missed legal deadlines, secretly re-redacted files, and withheld documents containing allegations that Trump sexually …

  • UN Human Rights Council-mandated experts stated in February 2026 that the crimes documented in the Epstein files — sexual slavery, …
  • The Trump DOJ missed the 30-day legal deadline to release files, released only about 3.5 million of over 6 million responsive pages, and …

DOGE Employees Matched Social Security Data with Voter Rolls to Pursue Voter Fraud Claims

DOGE employees at SSA secretly worked with a political advocacy group to match Social Security data with voter rolls to find 'evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results.' A signed …

  • In March 2025, a political advocacy group — believed to be True the Vote — contacted DOGE employees at SSA with a request to analyze state …
  • One DOGE team member signed a 'Voter Data Agreement' with the advocacy group on March 24, 2025, in his capacity as an SSA employee, without …

CFPB Dismantlement While Musk Launches Competing XMoney Payment Service

Musk used his government role leading DOGE to dismantle the CFPB, the agency positioned to regulate his XMoney digital payments platform, while gaining access to competitors' confidential financial …

  • DOGE shut down the CFPB on February 8, 2025, ordering all staff to stop work. The CFPB was the primary regulator that would have overseen …
  • X (formerly Twitter) announced XMoney, a peer-to-peer digital payments service with Visa debit card integration, which entered beta in March …

DOGE Unauthorized Access to Treasury, OPM, and Social Security Databases

DOGE accessed Treasury, OPM, and SSA databases containing millions of Americans' personal data without authorization or completed background checks. Federal judges ordered data disgorged and deleted, …

  • DOGE staff were granted access to Treasury's central payment system (handling trillions in tax refunds, Social Security benefits, and …
  • A federal judge found DOGE staffers were given access before background checks were completed or inter-agency detail agreements were …

DOGE Associates Gained Access to $6 Trillion Treasury Payment System

DOGE associates including Tom Krause (Broadcom executive) and Marko Elez (25-year-old with racist posts) accessed Treasury's $6 trillion payment system. Elez was mistakenly given write access to …

  • DOGE associates were granted access to the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which processes over $6 trillion in annual payments …
  • Tom Krause, former Broadcom CFO and current CEO of Cloud Service Group, was made an unpaid 'senior advisor for technology and modernization' …

Musk's $38 Billion Government Contract Empire Untouched While Leading DOGE Cuts

The world's richest man led government cost-cutting while his companies held $38 billion in government funding. Zero Musk contracts were cut. SpaceX won new billions in Pentagon contracts during the …

  • Musk's companies have received at least $38 billion in cumulative government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits. In 2024 alone, …
  • SpaceX holds nearly $8 billion in Pentagon contracts and received approximately $5.9 billion in new National Security Space Launch contracts …

Trump Emoluments: Foreign Government Payments Through Business Deals, Gifts, and Cryptocurrency

An unprecedented pattern of foreign government payments flowing to the president's personal businesses and financial ventures, including real estate deals in Vietnam, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, and the …

  • Vietnam approved a $1.5 billion Trump Organization golf resort outside Hanoi while seeking to avoid a 46% US import tariff — raising direct …
  • LIV Golf, backed by the Saudi government, hosted tournaments at Trump National Doral for four consecutive years, including the first with …

Systematic Pardons of Political Allies and Financial Criminals — $1.3 Billion in Victim Restitution Erased

A systematic pattern of pardons benefiting political allies, donors, and financial criminals. Over half of 88 clemency grants went to white-collar offenders, erasing $1.3 billion in victim …

  • More than half of 88 individual pardons through January 2026 went to people convicted of white-collar crimes — money laundering, bank fraud, …
  • House Judiciary Democrats calculated that Trump's pardons erased $1.3 billion in victim repayment and taxpayer recovery for Medicare fraud, …