Leaders and Boosters
This page is a mix of people who have been identified as leadership for DOGE, although many of the details of who is in charge and how they coordinate have been purposefully obscured by DOGE.
Leaders
Baris Akis
Baris Akis was a booster for DOGE before it even formally existed, and he has been linked to its activities at the IRS, Treasury and OPM by the New York Times. As a non-US citizen (he has a green card), Mr. Akis is not formally a part of DOGE, but he was identified as leading operations as recently as March alongside fellow Musk loyalists Anthony Armstrong and Steve Davis. He is the president and co-founder of the company Human Capital.
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
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12/06
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1/12
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Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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1/24
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c.1/25
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Report:
Elon Musk makes a request for Baris Akis to be allowed to work for DOGE, even though he is a noncitizen and it wouldn’t normally be allowed. His request is denied.
(fuzz: date not given, but source published Feb 4th)
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c.3/26
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Directory:
In a later interview, Sahil Lavingia describes attending an “E-meeting” for DOGE that included Elon Musk but was essentially run by Steve Davis as well as two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis. Baris Akis is notably not an employee of DOGE, since he is a foreign national and Musk was not granted a waiver to hire him.
(fuzz: date is given as “late March,” assuming a Wednesday bc others reported DOGE meetings during that time)
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Anthony Armstrong
Anthony Armstrong comes to DOGE from the world of finance, where he worked on Musk’s acquisition of Twitter as a bank executive at Morgan Stanley. Since joining DOGE at OPM, he has mostly operated quietly in a support role, but in April he was spotted at the FDIC, and I would expect him to be involved with DOGE’s work against other independent financial entities. Although he has a relatively modest title, recently departed DOGE member Sahil Lavingia indicated that he was running operations for teams across government with Baris Akis and Steve Davis. Reportedly, he left his OPM position in April but continues to coordinate DOGE from within DHS.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
1/20-c.4/30
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appointed Expert, Office of the Director (ED-00, excepted) «reportedly left OPM in April, but as at FDIC on 4/10, so maybe end of month» NOTUS | |
4/10
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likely detailed «reported by media» Handbasket | |
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likely detailed «NYT reports he left OPM in April but stayed on a DHS. Unclear of timing, later appointed at DHS» NYT |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1/20
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2/12
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Directory:
In a FOIA request, Democracy Forward names DOGE staff known to be at OPM at that time.
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c.3/26
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Directory:
In a later interview, Sahil Lavingia describes attending an “E-meeting” for DOGE that included Elon Musk but was essentially run by Steve Davis as well as two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis. Baris Akis is notably not an employee of DOGE, since he is a foreign national and Musk was not granted a waiver to hire him.
(fuzz: date is given as “late March,” assuming a Wednesday bc others reported DOGE meetings during that time)
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4/10
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Sighting:
Brooks Morgan, Adam Ramada and Anthony Armstrong visit the FDIC headquarters. Their arrival is later confirmed for staff with an email stating they have not been granted access to any sensitive bank information.
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c.6/05
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Disruption:
Concerned by people questioning his continued authority, Steve Davis reportedly taps Anthony Armstrong, Josh Gruenbaum and Stephen Ehikian to assess the loyalty of DOGE staffers and assert they are the leadership of DOGE now, acting under the authority of JD Vance and Susie Wiles in the White House. This is a bluff, and staffers in the White House counter that their authority is only within GSA itself.
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Jennifer Balajadia
An longtime personal assistant to Elon Musk – who reportedly once told a Twitter employee that “Elon is special in this world. It is our job to protect him and make sure what he wants to have happen” – Jennifer “Jehn” Balajadia has been linked to the Department of Education and possibly a few other agencies by the New York Times, but actual details of her activity have been scarce.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
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appointed «NYT links her to Education, but no other info found» NYT |
Open Questions
- Is Jennifer Balajadia still in DOGE? Is she still at Education?
In the wake of Elon Musk’s departure, several high-level DOGE people who came from Musk’s circle also resigned. By all accounts, this would make Jennifer Balajadia a likely person to leave. But I have also very little info about her involvement before then.
Steve Davis
Reportedly so loyal to Elon Musk that associates have joked he would jump off a cliff if Musk asked him, Steve Davis has long been besides Musk’s side at various companies, serving in senior executive roles at the Boring Company and Twitter. At Twitter, he was reportedly so dedicated to the work that he moved into the offices with his wife, Nicole Hollander, and their small child. And it is also reported that he was once so distressed by setbacks and failures that he started pulling out his own hair. It’s been a thinly-veiled secret that Steve Davis was running the show at DOGE, well before Amy Gleason was publicly named as the administrator. And recent interviews with Sahil Lavingia and other insiders suggested he had continued to fill that role, until he abruptly departed after Elon Musk left.
Despite no longer being in government, Steve Davis has reportedly stayed in contact with DOGE staffers and has directed their actions through back-channel communications. Reportedly, he has even called for the firing of DOGE staffers who expressed concerns about the legality of his continued involvement.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
1/20-5/29
Left DOGE
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appointed «assuming he started on 2025-01-20» WSJ |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
12/06
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c.12/15
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Interagency:
A contractor at the Social Security Administration arranges an introduction for Leland Dudek to meet Steve Davis.
(fuzz: Date is just given as “mid-December”)
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1/12
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Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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1/24
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1/30
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Interagency:
Elon Musk reportedly visits GSA to meet with staff, several of whom are identified from their appearances in the internal directory for the agency. These include Steve Davis, Nicole Hollander, Thomas Shedd, Stephen Ehikian and Luke Farritor.
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1/31
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2/05
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Official:
According to later sworn testimony from Kendall Lindemann, this is the date that Steve Davis was designated as the decision-maker for DOGE as the senior-most political appointee until Amy Gleason is appointed as acting administratior of DOGE on 2025-02-18. Later news reports suggest Steve Davis continued to remain in charge.
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2/10
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Disruption:
Mike Russo and the DOGE chief of staff Steve Davis both demand that Akash Bobba be onboarded at Social Security Administration before midnight, bypassing the usual background security checks.
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3/05
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Directory:
The Intercept receives a list of 30 DOGE staffers working within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including 4 lawyers previously not listed
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c.3/26
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Directory:
In a later interview, Sahil Lavingia describes attending an “E-meeting” for DOGE that included Elon Musk but was essentially run by Steve Davis as well as two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis. Baris Akis is notably not an employee of DOGE, since he is a foreign national and Musk was not granted a waiver to hire him.
(fuzz: date is given as “late March,” assuming a Wednesday bc others reported DOGE meetings during that time)
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3/28
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4/08
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4/13
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Interagency:
Adam Martinez responds in the affirmative to an email (contents redacted in court filings) requesting items/access for unspecified people to conduct the RIF. Several DOGE staffers (Ashley Boizelle and Steve Davis as well as Gavin Kliger and Jeremy Lewin) are also cc’ed on the message
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5/29
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Offboard:
In the wake of Elon Musk’s departure, Steve Davis, Katie Miller and James Burnham reportedly also left DOGE. Davis had been widely described as running the day-to-day operations of DOGE, and it’s unclear who will take that over.
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6/XX
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Report:
After several DOGE staffers expressed concerns that he should not have access to government information or continue to direct DOGE staff, Steve Davis reportedly pushes for their firing, calling it an attempted coup. Sam Corcos is named as one DOGE staffer who was given the silent treatment by Davis and allies.
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c.6/05
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Disruption:
Concerned by people questioning his continued authority, Steve Davis reportedly taps Anthony Armstrong, Josh Gruenbaum and Stephen Ehikian to assess the loyalty of DOGE staffers and assert they are the leadership of DOGE now, acting under the authority of JD Vance and Susie Wiles in the White House. This is a bluff, and staffers in the White House counter that their authority is only within GSA itself.
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c.6/05
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Disruption:
Concerned by Steve Davis’ attempts to stay involved with DOGE despite no longer being employed by the agency and instructions to not interact with him, DOGE staffers Yinon Weiss, Sam Corcos, Ryan Shea, and Adam Blake privately questioned Davis about his involvement. They also reportedly contacted DOGE general counsel Austin Raynor about the legality of his continued involvement.
(fuzz: date is not given in article, unclear if at meeting or afterwards)
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6/05
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6/07
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Disruption:
Steve Davis removed DOGE staffers that he considered disloyal from shared Signal chats that DOGE had continued to use for coordination. He also used his influence at GSA to have Ryan Shea removed from his position. Other Davis targets – Yinon Weiss, Sam Corcos and Adam Blake – were able to remain at their posts but were shut out from DOGE communications
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6/10
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Report:
Despite having left government service, Elon Musk, Steve Davis and Katie Miller reportedly tell top DOGE staff at a meeting that Musk continues to back their work and they should continue to stay the course.
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7/08
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Report:
The Wall Street Journal reports that Steve Davis continues to exert control over DOGE via informal communications, despite having departed the agency after Musk left.
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Amy Gleason
Amy Gleason was suddenly thrusted into the public spotlight on Feb. 18, 2025 when the White House Press Secretary identified her as the Administrator of DOGE. Conveniently, she was on vacation in Mexico at the time, so the press was unable to clarify if she was also blindsided by the news. Since then, she has gamely testified for a few times as the administrator of DOGE, but since early March she has largely resumed working full-time as an official employee within HHS, where she had started work in January 2025 for the US Digital Service. Nobody in DOGE seems to even be pretending anymore that she is running things.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
12/30-2/18
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appointed «this is Amy’s role in USDS until she was named the administrator of DOGE» court doc | |
2/XX
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likely detailed «assuming a detail from DOGE to HHS» court doc | |
2/18
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promoted to Acting Administrator, US DOGE Service and the DOGE Temporary Organization court doc | |
c.2/24
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internal xfer court doc | |
3/04
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converted to permanent position Expert/Consultant |
Systems
System | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
CALM
2/24
|
2/24 | CMS Acquisition Lifecycle Management System
System for tracking CMS acquisitions, contracts, milestones and audits. (CMS) read access granted by CIO court doc |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
2/05
|
Official:
According to later sworn testimony from Kendall Lindemann, this is the date that Steve Davis was designated as the decision-maker for DOGE as the senior-most political appointee until Amy Gleason is appointed as acting administratior of DOGE on 2025-02-18. Later news reports suggest Steve Davis continued to remain in charge.
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2/24
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Access:
Amy Gleason is granted read access to the CMS Acquisition Lifestye Management System (CALM), which tracks CMS aquisitions and contracts.
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2/26
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Official:
After days of sustained questioning about who the USDS Administrator is, the White House gives the name of Amy Gleason. It is unclear how long she had been in the role. She also conveniently is on a trip to Mexico during the announcement and is thus unreachable.
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3/19
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Directory:
In another sworn statement, Amy Gleason declares “every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency.” She does later clarify that some are detailed from USDS but also claims they report to agency heads. She also reports that USDS has approximately 79 directly appointed employees and 10 employees detailed from other agencies.
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3/29
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||
3/29
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Legal:
In a legal filing, the DOJ identifies 4 DOGE staffers - Edward Coristine, Marko Elez, Luke Farritor and Amy Gleason - as present at CMS. It omits the names of several other staffers with access to the CALM system.
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4/01
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Report:
In a group chat within HHS system, Amy Gleason attempts to distance herself from the mass layoffs caused by DOGE by claiming she is just the USDS administrator only and has nothing to do with how the DOGE teams operate.
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7/15
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Legal:
In a setback for the Trump administration, an appeals court rules in CREW v. DOGE that the agency must comply with records requests being made by CREW and that the official DOGE administrator Amy Gleason must be made available to testify. This came after CREW modified its initial request to exclude certain communications that the Supreme Court had ruled should be exempted. Those changes were enough to satisfy the appeals court.
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Antonio Gracias
Antonio Gracias has had a longtime connection with Elon Musk as an early investor in both Tesla and SpaceX, and he has also sat on the boards of both companies. He also was involved with Musk’s purchase of Twitter. He has been stationed as part of the DOGE team within Social Security Administration, since late February. Over the last few months, he has regularly appeared on friendly media outlets to describe alleged instances of fraud within SSA.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
2/23
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[as SSA-04] appointed Expert, Office of the Chief Information Officer (NTE 2026-02-22, ED-00, volunteer) court doc |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
2/23
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Onboard:
Social Security Administration onboards 3 more unidentified DOGE staffers – SSA-06 (Jon Koval), SSA-04 (Antonio Gracias), and SSA-09 (Payton Rehling) – as volunteers with the title of Expert.
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3/12
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Directory:
In a sworn declaration, Florence Felix-Lawson notes “the SSA DOGE Team currently consists of ten SSA employees: four SSA special government employees (Employees 1, 4, 6, and 9) and six detailees to SSA from other government agencies and offices (Employees 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10)”
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3/13
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Directory:
Wired reports that 10 DOGE staffers are currently visible in the Microsoft Teams directory of all employees at SSA
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3/30
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Disruption:
At a town hall event in Wisconsin, Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias claim to have found fraud in the number of immigrants being granted social security numbers.
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4/02
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Disruption:
In an interview on Fox, Antonio Gracias makes misleading claims that DOGE had discovered widespread voting fraud through joining social security data and state voter rolls.
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4/11
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5/23
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Interagency:
In a podcast appearance, Antonio Gracias reported that the Department of Justice had requested for DOGE to find “10-20 cases” of alleged noncitizen voting in every state.
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Michael Grimes
Michael Grimes is one of the two members of DOGE who came to the agency from Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that coordinated Musk’s takeover of Twitter. At Commerce, he has kept a relatively low profile, but there were some reports of him subjecting staff in the CHIPS for America program to DOGE-style interviews.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
2/27
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appointed Senior Advisor ProPublica |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
3/28
|
Sighting:
Michael Grimes conducts DOGE-style interviews with each member of the staff in the Chips Program Office. This group administers grants following the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (signed by Biden) to encourage semiconductor manufacturing in the US.
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Elon Musk
An obscure and modest businessman, he has served as merely a humble advisor to the administration, just raising his hand meekly during occasional meetings to offer a suggestion or two. Or not. He’s just a humble little advisor working for a non-agency that doesn’t do anything important enough to keep records for. That’s the story. Yeah… that’s it.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
1/20-5/28
Left DOGE
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appointed |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
12/06
|
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c.1/25
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Report:
Elon Musk makes a request for Baris Akis to be allowed to work for DOGE, even though he is a noncitizen and it wouldn’t normally be allowed. His request is denied.
(fuzz: date not given, but source published Feb 4th)
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1/30
|
Interagency:
Elon Musk reportedly visits GSA to meet with staff, several of whom are identified from their appearances in the internal directory for the agency. These include Steve Davis, Nicole Hollander, Thomas Shedd, Stephen Ehikian and Luke Farritor.
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1/30
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Disruption:
Jeremy Lewin and Elon Musk order the acting head of USAID to comply with orders to lock every USAID employee worldwide out of all email and other communication systems. He refuses, stating that a sudden loss of access could get aid workers killed.
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2/04
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Interagency:
One of AFGE’s members who works in the headquarters of the Department received an instruction from Department leadership that Elon Musk and his DOGE team would be accessing Department of Labor headquarters beginning around 4 p.m. on February 5, 2025. This member and other employees were told by Department leadership that when Mr. Musk and his team visit, they are to do whatever they ask, not to push back, not to ask questions. They were told to provide access to any DOL system they requested access to and not to worry about any security protocols; “just do it.”
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2/07
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2/09
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Official:
Elon Musk posts more tweets claiming to have discovered sources of “massive fraud” within the SSA. These appear to be a misunderstanding of how erroneous records that exist in the SSA database are already filtered out from receiving benefits. Instead, he assumed that all erroneous records had received benefits and thus this was the massive fraud.
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3/12
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3/21
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Sighting:
Elon Musk arrives at the Pentagon for a meeting with leadership, reportedly to discuss DOGE’s involvement at the agency.
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c.3/26
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Directory:
In a later interview, Sahil Lavingia describes attending an “E-meeting” for DOGE that included Elon Musk but was essentially run by Steve Davis as well as two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis. Baris Akis is notably not an employee of DOGE, since he is a foreign national and Musk was not granted a waiver to hire him.
(fuzz: date is given as “late March,” assuming a Wednesday bc others reported DOGE meetings during that time)
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3/27
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3/31
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5/14
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5/28
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6/10
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Report:
Despite having left government service, Elon Musk, Steve Davis and Katie Miller reportedly tell top DOGE staff at a meeting that Musk continues to back their work and they should continue to stay the course.
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Amanda Scales
An associate of Elon Musk from xAI, Amanda Scales has been located at GSA since Day 1, where she acted as the Chief of Staff until swapping places with James Sullivan at the end of March. She reportedly has left OPM as part of the exodus after Musk’s departure.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
1/20-3/28
Left DOGE
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appointed Chief of Staff, Office of the Director (55-Noncareer (Senior Exec Perm), ES-00, supervisory) | |
3/28-3/29
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demoted to Senior Advisor, Office of the Director (55-Noncareer (Senior Exec Perm), ES-00) «Her LinkedIn profile says she left OPM in March. Assuming it followed her demotion/replacement» court doc |
Systems
System | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
website
1/20
|
1/20 | Agency Website
This is a stand-in for whatever website platform an agency is using (OPM) unknown access «listed as grant for “Web Admin” on 1/20. Not revoked as of 2/12» court doc |
github
1/20
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1/20 | GitHub
A service owned by Microsoft for developers to run version control on their applications and back them up to shared repositories that can be used by other developers. Github is provided as both a hosted service (at github.com) or via versions that can be installed with agency data centers (aka GitHub Enterprise or GHE). Access to Github would be expected for developers, but doesn’t necessarily mean the person is a coder. (OPM) unknown access «Github Enterprise» court doc |
USA Staffing
1/20
|
1/20 | USA Staffing
A platform for federal agencies to recruit and onboard employees. (OPM) admin access «for verifying the govt-wide hiring freeze» court doc |
Databricks
1/28
|
1/28 | Databricks
A hosted or self-hosted service that simplifies systems for processing big Data (OPM) admin access (never accessed) court doc |
STAMP
1/31
|
1/31 | STAMP
This is a system at OPM that I do not have information about yet (OPM) unknown access court doc |
Databricks
2/03
|
2/03 | Databricks
A hosted or self-hosted service that simplifies systems for processing big Data (OPM) admin access (never accessed) court doc |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1/17
|
Action:
Noah Peters recalls that he met with Amanda Scales and Brian Bjelde on this day to plan for their upcoming first day at OPM.
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1/20
|
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1/20
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Access:
IT staff at OPM are pulled into a “911-esque call” requesting that “a political team” of 6 individuals must be given access to OPM systems. These include Charles Ezell, Greg Hogan, and Amanda Scales, as well as unidentified employees OPM-03 (Akash Bobba), OPM-05 (Gavin Kliger) and OPM-07 (Brian Bjelde). These DOGE staffers are granted administrative access to USAJOBS, USA Staffing, and USA Performance systems.
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1/27
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||
1/28
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||
1/31
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2/12
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Directory:
In a FOIA request, Democracy Forward names DOGE staff known to be at OPM at that time.
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3/24
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Legal:
Ruling in American Federation of Teachers et al v. Bessent et al, Judge Boardman issues a preliminary injunction against access by DOGE staff to internal systems at OPM by DOGE. However, he still allows access for DOGE-affiliated leadership at the agency including Charles Ezell, Amanda Scales and Greg Hogan.
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3/28
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Action:
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Amanda Scales is replaced as the Chief of Staff at OPM by James Sullivan. Amanda changes to a Senior Advisor position at the agency.
(fuzz: Amanda Scales reports on her LinkedIn that she left DOGE in March, so this might have been the cause)
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Brad Smith
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
2/XX
|
appointed «identified as dual appointee at HHS and DOGE / detailed from USDS» court doc | |
2/XX-3/04
Left DOGE
|
likely detailed «detail started before 2/13» | |
3/04-5/23
Left DOGE
|
converted to permanent position Senior Advisor |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1/12
|
Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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|
1/24
|
||
3/31
|
Report:
Politico reports that Brad Smith, who crafted the plan to layoff 10,000 staffers within HHS, is facing criticism from other DOGE staffers for attempting to shield CMS from the brunt of the layoffs. His aide, Rachel Riley is accused of being extraordinarily secretive with the plan.
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Russell Vought
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
---|---|---|
2/07
|
appointed Director, Office of Management and Budget (supervisory) | |
2/08
|
appointed Acting Director (supervisory) CNN |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
2/07
|
Official:
OMB director Russell Vought is named the new acting head of the CFPB. The CFPB Chief Legal Counsel is also replaced by Mark Paoletta, a close associate of Russell Vought.
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|
2/10
|
Disruption:
In an email sent to all staff, Russell Vought orders the CFPB’s headquarters to be indefinitely closed. He also orders: “Please do not perform any work tasks. If there are any urgent matters, please alert me through Mark Paoletta, Chief Legal Officer, to get approval in writing before performing any work task. Otherwise, employees should stand down from performing any work task.”
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|
2/13
|
Disruption:
The CFPB RIF team, including Adam Martinez meets with Jordan Wick, Jeremy Lewin, and OPM officials on a video call. Jeremy Lewin and Jordan Wick talk off screen with Acting Director Russell Vought, and Wick tells the group that they want formal RIF notices to go out no later than February 14. The team receives a template from OPM for firing 1200 employees “at night on the 13th.”
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2/18
|
Disruption:
An employee requests to repair the CFPB homepage that was purposefully deleted by DOGE. That action is refused by order of Russell Vought. Other work is allowed for digital teams.
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|
2/20
|
Disruption:
Jordan Wick emails Russell Vought asking for approval to cut an additional $8.4 million of contracts at the CFPB
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3/10
|
Onboard:
The Trump administration nominates Laken Rapier and Russell Vought to be on the board of the USADF.
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3/10
|
Onboard:
The Trump Administration nominates Kenneth Jackson and Russell Vought to be on the board of the IAF.
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|
5/13
|
Disruption:
The CFPB, still under the acting leadership of Russell Vought, withdraws a rule proposed in December that would limit the ability of data brokers to sell sensitive information by placing them under the oversight of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
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|
6/04
|
Official:
Testifying to Congress, Russell Vought says the White House is in “the midst of … establishing the leadership on an ongoing basis.” But he also says more DOGE staff will be embedded directly in agencies to report to leadership there. Amy Gleason is not mentioned.
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Boosters
DOGE has also attracted a number of boosters. These are Silicon Valley-adjacent or Musk-affiliated people who have been promoting the agency’s operations or even active recruitment, but do not have a connection to the daily operations within government.
Marc Andreessen
According to early reports, Marc Andreesen’s only direct involvement with DOGE was interviewing potential candidates at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024. However, he continues to be a strident booster of the effort.
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
12/06
|
||
1/12
|
Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
|
|
1/16
|
Report:
A report on conservative nonprofit groups doing research for DOGE notes that interviews are being conducted by Marc Andreessen and Shaun Maguire.
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|
1/24
|
Jared Birchall
Identified recently in a WSJ story as Elon Musk’s longtime “fixer” and the manager of Musk’s family office, Jared Birchall was instrumental in organizing Musk’s donations to the Trump campaign. He was part of the team in place before the Inauguration to interview DOGE staffers and build out the team.
George Cooper
After Anthony Jancso posted his initial recruitment messages for DOGE to a chat group for Palantir alumni, George Cooper chimed in to say he was also recruting for the organization. A Palantir engineer since 2019, it’s unclear if he had any other involvement with DOGE since.
Vinay Hiremath
Identified by the New York Times as part of DOGE’s pre-inauguration recruitment push, Vinay reportedly spent a month personally calling hundreds of people to recruit them for DOGE before he dropped out of the project in January.
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1/12
|
Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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Anthony Jancso
In late November and early December, Jancso was actively recruiting for DOGE on message boards for Palantir alumni and other similar places he might find likely candidates. It’s unclear what his involvement has been with DOGE since January, but in May he started recruiting for a project to “deploy AI agents across live workflows in federal agencies”. Prior to DOGE, he was a cofounder with Jordan Wick of a project called Accelerate SF which promised to deploy AI across the public sector.
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
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11/26
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Sighting:
A person who is likely Anthony Jancso posted a message in an AI challenge’s Discord saying “Helping the Dept. of Government Efficiency team find hardcore engineers. Send your GitHub/LinkedIn to @DOGE on X and your X handle to me in DM if you’re interested or know someone who is, could help get them into the pipeline.”
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12/05
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Sighting:
A person who is likely Anthony Jancso posts recruitment messages for DOGE to a chat group for employees who had worked at Palantir
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Shaun Maguire
Shaun Maguire is a partner at the investment firm Sequoia. In that position, he has been heavily involved with investments in several of Musk’s companies like SpaceX, the Boring Company and xAI. He was heavily involved in setting up DOGE and planning its strategies in the months after the election, but he has not had a formal role in the agency, serving as a vocal booster and recruiter on social media instead.
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
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12/06
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1/12
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Directory:
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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1/16
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Report:
A report on conservative nonprofit groups doing research for DOGE notes that interviews are being conducted by Marc Andreessen and Shaun Maguire.
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1/24
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Katie Miller
The wife of Stephen Miller, Katie is in some sort of communications role for DOGE, but it’s unclear what her day-to-day responsibilities for his entail. Sharing the virulent anti-immigrant politics of her husband, she likely has been a conduit for coordinating DOGE’s anti-immigration focus. Recently, she notably left DOGE along with Elon Musk to go work for him instead.
Positions
Position | Dates | Notes |
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1/20-5/29
Left DOGE
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appointed «no public details on when she started with DOGE, but date inferred» |
Events
Agency | Date | Event |
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1/24
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4/01
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Disruption:
Alarmed at the viral spread of DOGE’s false claim that 40% of all calls to Social Security are fraud, agency staff at SSA draft a public statement to correct the errors in the claim. They are specifically ordered by Katie Miller not to release it. She asserts “the number is 40 percent.”
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5/29
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Offboard:
In the wake of Elon Musk’s departure, Steve Davis, Katie Miller and James Burnham reportedly also left DOGE. Davis had been widely described as running the day-to-day operations of DOGE, and it’s unclear who will take that over.
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6/10
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Report:
Despite having left government service, Elon Musk, Steve Davis and Katie Miller reportedly tell top DOGE staff at a meeting that Musk continues to back their work and they should continue to stay the course.
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