Cole Killian
Wrecker
, coder, age 24
Gautier “Cole” Killian was identified early as one of the initial DOGE employees, and there are reports of him interviewing USDS staff about their roles as early as January 21st. He was also spotted in a few of the early wrecking crew raids, but he has largely fallen off the radar since the end of February, when he was detailed to the Social Security Administration. Perhaps he is one of the still-unidentified aliases there and more details of his involvement will become apparent in future court filings and FOIA releases.
Likely aliases: SSA-05
Positions
| Position | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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1/20
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appointed «reported as interviewing USDS staff about jobs, not found in GSA or OPM lists» Wired | |
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2/04
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likely detailed as Federal Detailee «assuming detail from DOGE» E&E News | |
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c.2/13
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likely detailed NBC News | |
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2/18
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[as SSA-05] detail (NTE 2026-07-04) «limited onboarding docs, court docs about them» court doc |
Systems
| System | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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EAS
2/12
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2/12 | EPA Acquisition System
System used at the EPA to initiate, award, modify and track acquisition actions. (EPA) read access E&E News |
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IRON
3/12
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3/12 | IRON Website
I have not found any public details about this system. It was named in internal emails from SSA as a way for Cole Killian to investigate people beyound a reasonable age whould could be declared dead. (SSA) unknown access court doc |
Events
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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1/21
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Disruption:
Nikhil Rajpal and Cole Killian start screening all preexisting USDS staff with short interviews, asking them their views of DOGE and to name who they think are underperformers that should be fired.
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2/04
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Sighting:
Cole Killian appears in an EPA internal directory as a “Federal Detailee” (under his legal name Gautier Killian).
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2/11
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Disruption:
Kathryn Armstrong Loving sends the EPA administrator a list of contracts that DOGE wants to eliminate and she includes Cole Killian on her message.
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2/13
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Access:
DOGE staffers granted authorization to use a SQL client for databases file transfer software at Department of Labor, alarming cybersecurity staff that it could be used to remove data. The staffers named are Sam Beyda, Derek Geissler, Cole Killian, Adam Ramada and Jordan Wick.
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2/18
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Onboard:
Multiple unidentified DOGE staffers start working at SSA on the same day. SSA-02 (Scott Coulter) is detailed from NASA. SSA-07 (Marko Elez) is detailed from the DOL. SSA-10 (Ethan Shaotran) arrives from the GSA, and SSA-05 (Cole Killian) is detailed from DOGE itself.
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2/20
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Directory:
Several DOGE staffers working at the agency are identified by Social Security Works (a nonprofit advocacy group).
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2/28
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Official:
Via email, SSA-05 (Cole Killian) at the DOGE team at SSA requests and receives approval from Leland Dudek to run a program to identify unrealistically old people in the SSA database. Scott Coulter is cc’ed on the approval.
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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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3/14
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Access:
Leland Dudek grants approval for SSA-05 (Cole Killian) to run the proposed tool for modifying the death data records to eliminate implausibly old people. DOGE was convinced these data errors were a massive source of fraud, despite evidence to the contrary from SSA staff and concerns that correcting the data would be a waste of time.
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3/27
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Access:
In a sworn declaration, Leland Dudek justifies access to PII in SSA records for SSA-01 (Akash Bobba), SSA-05 (Cole Killian), SSA-08 (Nikhil Rajpal) and SSA-09 (Payton Rehling) on the DOGE team. This access is granted through the SSA’s Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) system. He asserts that DOGE staff are being granted only the minimum levels of schema access required.
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