Records indicate that in late January, a request was submitted to provide Elez with access to two systems. On January 31, David Lebryk, who previously served as the acting Treasury secretary and commissioner of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), unexpectedly announced his retirement after being placed on administrative leave for refusing to grant the Department of Government Engagement (DOGE) access to these payment systems. This decision raised concerns among those familiar with the Treasury. On the same day, a government document reveals that at 6:07 pm, a ticket was filed reversing a previous order to provide Elez with read-only access, stating instead, “sorry read/write is needed.”
Simultaneously, with Lebryk stepping away, DOGE gained full access to USAID’s IT systems and network, as reported by ProPublica. The following day, amidst the dismantling of USAID, court documents reveal that Elez was granted access to the source codes of ASAP, SPS, and PAM, as well as read-only access to the production databases for SPS and PAM.
Sources familiar with Treasury systems told WIRED that it is unusual for a BFS employee to have simultaneous access to all these systems. A former BFS employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that typically, BFS employees are given the minimum system access necessary for their roles, making such extensive access for a single employee highly atypical.
According to an affidavit from a senior Treasury official, a plan to isolate USAID payment files, detailed by Garber, was temporarily put on hold as the State Department chose to intercept the files. However, on February 4 and 5, payments from USAID were transferred to the PAM portal designed by Garber’s team.
This affidavit also outlined BFS’s subsequent instructions: to flag, quarantine, and send several payments to State officials in accordance with an executive order by President Donald Trump, which imposed a 90-day pause on foreign aid while the State Department reviewed each program. The plan, vetted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, included payments originating from the Department of Health and Human Services for “Refugee and Entrant Assistance,” “Gifts and Donations Office of Refugee Resettlement,” and “Refugee Resettlement Assistance.”
During this period, Musk expressed strong criticism of USAID. In a February 2 post on X, he referred to USAID as a “criminal organization” and suggested it needed to end.
DOGE operatives, including Luke Farritor, gained “super administrator” access to USAID’s systems, according to ProPublica. Farritor, who was also involved with the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration, reportedly manually suspended agency funding by navigating through USAID’s payment system. According to The Washington Post, Elez engaged in a similar operation in Kansas City, as detailed in an affidavit from a Treasury official. The engineer began manually reviewing the foreign aid payment files that had been isolated in a folder referenced in Garber’s late January email.
