Elon Musk has reinstated a former White House tech aide who resigned amid scandal – and has now quietly regained access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive databases. Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer with deep ties to Musk’s empire, including stints at X, SpaceX, and Starlink was forced to resign in early February after the resurfacing of vile social media posts.

In them he declared, among other things, that he was ‘racist before it was cool,’ urged followers to ‘normalize Indian hate,’ and mused about repealing the Civil Rights Act. He was revealed to have posted comments saying ‘you could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.’ Despite the firestorm, Elez (pictured) didn’t stay gone for long. Musk, who has spearheaded the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), promptly vowed to bring him back. ‘To err is human, to forgive divine,’ Musk wrote on X, echoing sentiments from Vice President J.D. Vance , who said ‘stupid social media activity’ should not ‘ruin a kid’s life.’

Far from being sidelined, Elez has been embedded across multiple federal agencies, with access to troves of personal, medical, and employment data. According to a bombshell court filing submitted on Saturday, Elez now works within the Department of Labor and has also been detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with four other agencies reportedly involved. He was granted read-only access to three Labor Department systems on February 25 – just four days after a judge blocked DOGE from Treasury systems over concerns that federal privacy laws had already been violated.

Then in early March, Elez was quietly authorized to access HHS databases, including those tied to Medicare, Medicaid, and a national database used to enforce child support. He was later stripped of some permissions at HHS, but not before accessing high-stakes data platforms that hold information on millions of Americans. President Trump’s executive order tasking DOGE with identifying ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ in federal systems and modernizing government software was used as the justification to reinstate the Elez. The executive order was issued on January 20 just moments after Trump retook the oath of office and gave Musk sweeping authority to embed tech operatives inside the federal bureaucracy.

Since then, his team has moved with breathtaking speed, installing dozens of under-30 engineers inside agencies like HHS, the Department of Education, and even the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). US District Judge Jeannette Vargas already raised alarm bells in February, barring DOGE from accessing Treasury databases after finding there was ‘a real possibility’ that Elez and others had improperly shared sensitive data. Specifically, Elez had transmitted a spreadsheet containing personally identifiable information to two General Services Administration officials who lacked the clearance to receive it – an apparent violation of federal privacy protocols.

At the time, Musk’s team downplayed the incident, noting that the information was ‘low risk.’ But court filings show this was only the beginning. The Saturday filing, submitted as part of ongoing litigation brought by federal labor unions and nonprofit watchdogs sheds light on the true scope of DOGE’s reach. In response to mounting evidence, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a sweeping injunction on Friday, temporarily freezing DOGE operations at the CFPB and warning of imminent, irreparable damage: ‘Absent an injunction freezing the status quo… there is a substantial risk that the defendants will complete the destruction of the agency completely in violation of law,’ she wrote.

Multiple federal lawsuits are now pending an Congressional Democrats have demanded Musk testify about his dual role as head of DOGE and CEO of six private companies. So far, those demands have been stonewalled by Republicans, who control both chambers and appear to support the DOGE agenda. ‘This is not some roving band running around doing things,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said to Bloomberg. ‘This is methodical, and it is going to yield big savings.’ Trump and billionaire ally Musk, who oversees the DOGE cost-cutting initiative, have been gutting agencies as part of an effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy and budget.

The aim is to root out waste, fraud and abuse, slash government spending and purge the federal workforce of low-performing, disloyal and unnecessary workers. Trump has said he is ‘very proud’ of what he describes as a vital initiative to turn off the spigot of wasteful spending. Earlier this month Trump ordered all federal agencies to draw up plans for a second wave of mass layoffs, and the White House began reviewing the plans last week alongside Musk’s DOGE.

In practice, some say DOGE has mostly pursued long-time Republican policy objectives, shuttering agencies such as USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which provide a lifeline to the world’s needy and protect Americans from unscrupulous lender respectively.

Tens of thousands of workers have been targeted for dismissal at federal agencies leading to drastic cuts at departments that provide critical social services including the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers healthcare for veterans, and the Social Security Administration, which sends out checks to retired, disabled and widowed Americans. Workers have also been targeted for dismissal including National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which provides weather forecasting and climate data.

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