Musk Claims To Know The Net Worths Of Federal Employees - But How?

[Wicked Blue]

Source: HuffPost

WASHINGTON – Elon Musk suggests he has obtained access to the personal financial records of federal employees, but the White House will not say how or why.

Musk, the world’s richest person and now a top aide to President Donald Trump, alluded to this data during an Oval Office appearance with Trump Tuesday evening as he took questions from reporters.

“We do find it sort of rather odd that, you know, there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have, ostensibly, a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth,” he said.

In reality, only 3% of the 2.4 million federal employees make more than $200,000 a year, while half make between $50,000 and $110,000 a year, according to government figures. Further, workers who have made six figures for a number of years could easily be worth seven figures, particularly those in their 50s or 60s who have been saving for retirement for decades and have considerable equity in their homes.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/musk-trump-employee-net-worths_n_67ad1a43e4b0239406deed9e?s7p=&utm_source=buzzfeed&utm_medium=iframely

[Wicked Blue]

1. More:

“How on earth would he have the information about the net worths of government employees?” asked Norm Eisen, a top White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama. “Either he’s making it up, which is profoundly concerning for the most powerful government official in history, or he has gotten access to data that he has no business getting.”

From same article

[Silent Type]

2. My guess is he looks at a Congress members or department heads making $175 K, but are known to be worth millions.

[Blues Heron]

3. They either nip this in the bud before it gets any worse or all bets are off as to how bad things get here

Impeachment proceedings must start ASAP. Pukes really need to stand up and do whats right for once.

[sakabatou]

4. I think he's making shit up, so he can cut their wages

[Callie1979]

5. Its called "investing", dumbass.

Start young & you CAN be worth millions by the time you retire even if you dont make a huge salary

[Liberty Belle]

6. Open Secrets lists net worth of all members of Congress,

so he wouldn't have to hack data to know Elizabeth Warren's.

There are estimates online of estimated net worth for some of the wealthiest folks that a Google search could find.

But it's also certainly possible that Musk is poking into tax filings or other records he shouldn't be allowed to see.

[Wicked Blue]

7. I think this is about regular federal employees

[IcyPeas]

8. Dear Leon Mucks... please "audit" Jared and Ivanka, Mnuchin etc.

[Nictuku]

9. They have their banking information

Edit to add: Not just Federal Employees, but every American who has received any type of payment from the Treasury (includes Tax Refunds, Pension payments for retired fed employees, and SS payments)

That is just about most of Americans

[Bluejeans]

10. Sounds like someone pulled data from the Federal employee Financial Disclosure databases and other Federal data

It sounds like someone in DOGE pulled data from the annual financial disclosure reports certain Federal civil servants, depending on their grade and duties, have to submit annually through a database system.

I was a Federal employee (GS-13) for 14 1/2 years and had to make such a financial disclosure annually until I retired in December 2022. Pretty much you have to report any investments outside a widely traded mutual fund or ETF, your income and your spouse's income including sources, any loans to anyone or loans you got from someone on a deal not open to the general public. The weirdest thing I ran across was the need to disclose data pertaining to whole life insurance policies that we owned, even on grandchildren!

[wishstar]

11. Easily obtainable from federal database since financial disclosure is mandatory for many Feds

https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/fair-and-transparent/financial-disclosure

"Some jobs require federal employees to disclose information about assets, income, employment agreements, liabilities, outside activities and gifts. Agencies use this information to identify and resolve real or perceived conflicts of interest.

The Ethics in Government Act requires certain federal employees to file financial disclosure reports. The first report is due within 30 days of entry on duty or earlier (if your agency requires pre-clearance) and then annually. There are two types of federal employees who must file:

Employees who must complete the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) form 278, which is available to the public on request.
Employees who must complete the OGE Form 450, which is confidential and not available to the public.
Whether you must file a financial disclosure report depends on the duties of the job. Generally, senior or high-level federal employes like political appointees, members of the Senior Executive Service or GS-15 or above employees must file public financial disclosure reports. Generally, you must file if you’re a GS-15 or below who works in areas like government contracting or procurement, grants, subsidies or licensing, auditing or other jobs. that may require the employee to avoid financial conflicts of interest."

Musk and his minions should be required to file financial disclosure especially with the obvious conflicts of interest but they are throwing out ethics and accountability being applied to their side.

[Eugene]

12. The records are there, but like tax returns, they are confidential. Elmo has no lawful right to access them.

Either he is lying about having the info, as he as done several times already,
or his crew of teenagers has broken into federal systems... again.