For several weeks, say sources with direct knowledge of the situation, DOGE operatives have been seeking what they termed “full” or “system” access to the DOI’s payroll, human resources, and credentialing systems. Among the systems to which it demanded full access is the Federal Personnel and Payroll System (FPPS), which is housed in the DOI’s Interior Business Center and is used by dozens of federal agencies ranging from the Department of Justice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to handle payroll and records associated with more than 275,000 federal workers, including at agencies outside the executive branch.
Lambert here: “….agencies outside the executive branch.” Hmm. Like, say, the Fed?
The DOGE associates in question are Tyler Hassen, an energy executive and acting assistant secretary of policy, management, and budget at DOI; Stephanie Holmes, who runs HR for DOGE and is the acting chief human capital officer at DOI; and Katrine Trampe, an adviser to Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior.
According to sources with direct knowledge, when asked why they sought full access to these systems, the DOGE operatives said they specifically sought levels of permissions that would give them the ability to create, pause, and delete email accounts. This functionality doesn’t, strictly speaking, exist for any one user within the systems they were seeking to access, because such actions are, as a security measure, designed to be initiated by one person and approved by another. Granting their request would thus require them each to be given an essentially God-mode level of access to the entire system architecture.
Lambert here: Email. Really?
According to sources with knowledge, these issues were raised at a Thursday morning meeting between top technical and legal staff from the DOI and DOGE, where the career officials asked what specifically the DOGE affiliates were trying to do so as to evaluate whether there were legal means of granting them the necessary access. When pressed for information that would allow officials to evaluate DOGE’s request and the risks it would raise, Trampe, the sources say, simply reiterated that they sought system-level access that would allow them to create, pause, or delete email accounts, citing the authority of the executive order and saying the matter was not up for debate. It was made clear during the meeting, the sources say, that the deadline for granting the access was Friday.
Lambert here: It’s as if EOs create a state of exception.
“These people,” says one source at DOI who worries that DOGE affiliates could inadvertently destroy parts of the nearly 30-year-old FPPS, stop paychecks, or allow for a breach of the entire system, “have no idea what they’re doing.”
Lambert here: Or maybe they do, if (since) the object is data exfilration.
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