Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) asked the United States Treasury Department to immediately halt all United States Agency for International Development (USAID) payments only four days after President Donald Trump's inauguration, CNN reported Thursday, citing sources.
The request, made by Musk's top lieutenants, was not accepted by then-acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, who replied that he lacked "the legal authority to stop an authorized payment certified by an agency."
Trump administration's decision to allow DOGE to access the Treasury's highly sensitive financial data, including Social Security and Medicare, sparked a controversy, resulting in a lawsuit being filed by US federal employee unions against the newly-minted agency. Trump's administration eventually agreed to allow only two DOGE affiliates at Treasury to access the information.
