DOGE staffer, 25, who once resigned over racist posts gains access to key gov’t personnel data

A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worker who resigned in February over racist posts before being brought back into the fold has since received expanded access to sensitive federal human resources information, new court filings show.

Marko Elez, who was also found by the Trump administration to have violated federal rules by disseminating a spreadsheet with identifying information about government employees, now has access to four closely guarded systems within the Department of Health and Human Services, according to documents filed by the Labor Department — where Elez is technically employed — in DC federal court.

While being seconded to HHS, Elez gained access to the National Directory of New Hires, Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System, Integrated Data Repository and the CMS Acquisition Lifecycle Modernization.

“Elez was granted read-only access to the above-listed systems in furtherance of the DOGE EO’s directive to identify waste, fraud, and abuse and to modernize government technology and software to increase efficiency and productivity,” wrote Justice Department trial attorney Brad Humphreys in response to a lawsuit from labor groups seeking more information about the work of DOGE staffers.

A 25-year-old engineer, Elez drew headlines earlier this year after the Wall Street Journal tied him to offensive posts made from a since-deleted X account with the user name “@nullllptr.”

Under the pseudonym, Elez backed a “eugenic immigration policy” and issued a call to “Normalize Indian hate.”

Elez resigned after the controversy emerged but was later rehired after top Trump administration officials such as Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance and even President Trump suggested he should be brought back on.

“To err is human, to forgive divine,” Musk said of Elez at the time. 

At the time, Elez was posted at the Treasury Department and listed as one of the “special government employees” working on the DOGE team.

A subsequent review divulged in a different court case concluded that Elez wrongly sent a spreadsheet that contained information about monetary transactions involving government workers to two General Services Administration officials.

The Humphreys filing, submitted March 29, noted that Elez “has been detailed to HHS since March 5, 2025” and had not utilized the sensitive systems as of March 26.

Saturday’s filling also sheds light on the access a handful of other DOGE employees have gotten during their work on the cost-cutting initiative.

DC US District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, is overseeing the case and has allowed for discovery into how DOGE has worked to slash government.

The Trump administration has faced dozens of lawsuits over its efforts to overhaul the federal government and root out bloat and inefficiencies.