Leland Dudek, acting head of the Social Security Administration, reportedly threatened to shut down the agency in response to a judge’s order restricting the access of DOGE employees to sensitive payment information.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a temporary restraining order against DOGE operatives Thursday, denying them access to payment information while saying “the DOGE team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA.”
The White House attacked the ruling, accusing Hollander of being a “radical leftist-judge” who is trying to “sabotage President Donald Trump’s agenda.” Dudek, who was recently elevated to the top of the agency by President Donald Trump, responded to the order by saying he may have to shut down the organization because all SSA employees are tasked with working with DOGE, and therefore the restraining order applies to them, too.
“Unless I get clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here,” Dudek told The Washington Post. Dudek reportedly said he is consulting with lawyers at the agency and at the Justice Department.
Social Security advocates said the incident simply demonstrates that DOGE and the White House are acting in a destructive rather than constructive way. “For almost 90 years, Social Security has never missed a paycheck — but 60 days into this administration, Social Security is now on the brink,” Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in a statement, per the Post. “Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has proven again that he is in way over his head, compromising the privacy of millions of Americans, shutting down services that senior citizens rely on and planning debilitating layoffs, all in service to Elon Musk’s lies.”