Payton Rehling
Wrecker, coder, age 27
Tech Industry Links: Valor
Payton Rehling is a senior data engineer at Valor Equity Partners, the private equity firm that is run by Antonio Gracias and Jon Koval. Rehling joined the Social Security Administration DOGE team in February but has since been detailed to DHS and the DOJ, where he has likely been heavily involved in the administration’s efforts to create a surveillance system to supercharge immigration enforcement.
Likely aliases: SSA-09
Positions
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| Position | Notes |
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| SSA |
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| DHS |
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| DOJ |
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Systems
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| System | Notes |
|---|---|
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PSSNAP
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SSN application process data (Phone). This is a data extract file rather than an independent system. read-write access granted by Agency Director Leland Dudek |
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MBR
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A large record of all individuals elgible to receive social security benefits read access granted by CIO Mike Russo |
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NUMIDENT
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NUMIDENT files that have been extracted from SSA systems, these contain SSNs for everybody read access granted by CIO Mike Russo |
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SSR
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A master record used by the SSA for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program read access granted by CIO Mike Russo |
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CIS
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The CIS contains information about immigrants who use Alien Numbers, or A-Numbers. unknown access granted by CIO Antoine McCord |
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ELIS
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ELIS acts as a case management system for USCIS and includes information about green cards and petitions, as well as details related to Temporary Protected Status and DACA applicants unknown access granted by CIO Antoine McCord |
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DBIS
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A system for tracking payments and business operations of USCIS unknown access granted by CIO Antoine McCord |
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ECAS
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A system used by DOJ for tracking the status of immigration cases unknown access |
Events
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| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2/23 SSA |
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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 SSA |
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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 SSA |
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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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| 3/19 SSA |
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Access:
Leland Dudek approves access for “Employee 9” of the DOGE team at SSA to view some additional schemas in the PSSNAP database of Social Security Applications conducted over the phone.
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| 3/25 VA |
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Directory:
Tech staffers and contractors noticed a new DOGE staffer, Sahil Lavingia, was pushing code to a repo in the VA’s Github instance. He also appeared to be using an AI tool to write code. This later turns out to be code that is reviewing contracts to be terminated.
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| 3/27 SSA |
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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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| 3/28 USCIS |
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Access:
USCIS CIO William McElhaney sends a message to DHS Deputy Secretary asking them to review access that was granted to DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, Aram Moghaddassi and Payton Rehling.
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| 4/11 DHS |
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Directory:
Politico profiles a DOGE immigration task force that is located within DHS but has contacts with DOGE staff at other agencies. It includes multiple DOGE staffers detailed from various agencies.
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| 6/25 VA |
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Oversight:
Democratic Congressman Mark Takano sends an angry letter to Secretary Collins of the VA demanding answers about DOGE activities including if they have installed spyware on agency machines, if they have been piloting AI, and if they have accessed medical records. He also asks for detailed information on DOGE staff at the agency.
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| 7/01 SSA |
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Offboard:
In response to a letter from the American Federation of Teachers union to nine public pension funds who are investors, Valor Equity Partners confirms that Antonio Gracias was working for Valor the entire time he was in DOGE and also reports that he left DOGE on July 1st. It’s unclear what the status of other Valor employees embedded in DOGE, Jon Koval and Payton Rehling, are.
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