Judge slams Social Security chief for agency shutdown ‘threats’ after DOGE ruling

A federal judge reprimanded Social Security Administration acting commissioner Lee Dudek on Friday for “making threats about shutting down operations” at the agency.

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander responded in two letters to counsel, hours apart, to claims that Dudek made in various media interviews that a temporary restraining order barring Department of Government Efficiency affiliates from accessing certain data “applies to almost all SSA employees.” Hollander called that assertion “inaccurate,” and later, “patently incorrect.”

The court order “expressly applies only to SSA employees working on the DOGE agenda,” Hollander wrote in the second letter. “It has no bearing on ordinary operations at SSA. In fact, if others at SSA are involved with DOGE, as Mr. Dudek seems to claim, then I was misled by counsel for the government.”

Dudek reversed his stance late Friday, after the judge’s first letter.

In a written statement, Dudek pointed to the court’s “clarifying guidance.”

“Therefore, I am not shutting down the agency,” he said. “SSA employees and their work will continue under the TRO.”

On Thursday, Hollander temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing individuals’ personal data at the Social Security Administration. Dudek said in interviews afterward that the ruling may require him to cut off access to all the agency’s employees.

“Everything in this agency is [personally identifiable information],” Dudek told The Washington Post on Friday. “Unless I get clarification, I’ll just start to shut it down. I don’t have much of a choice here.”

In her ruling, Hollander barred Social Security Administration employees including Dudek from granting the DOGE team access to information that can be used to identify individuals. DOGE is not a Cabinet department, and its leader, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is considered a special government employee.

Hollander also ordered DOGE team members to delete all non-anonymized personally identifiable information they have accessed “directly or indirectly” since Jan. 20.

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Following the ruling, Dudek said the court order is so broad that it could apply to any Social Security employee, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

“My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,” Dudek told Bloomberg. “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.”

In her Friday afternoon letter, Hollander clarified that Social Security Administration employees who are not either involved with or working with the DOGE team are not subject to the order. In addition, “any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect,” Hollander wrote.

In the follow-up letter sent Friday night, Hollander reiterated that the temporary restraining order only applies to agency employees working on the “DOGE Agenda.” That letter indicates 10 DOGE-affiliated individuals at the agency.

In a March 18 letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Dudek said there are only 11 DOGE-affiliated individuals at the Social Security Administration.

Warren, in a written statement, said, “The Trump administration is threatening to shut down all of Social Security simply because a judge ruled to block 11 DOGE employees from sticking their fingers in taxpayers’ private information.”

Dudek told various news outlets on Thursday and Friday that he would ask Hollander to immediately clarify the order.

In Hollander’s second Friday letter, she said she had “directed the government to contact Chambers immediately if there is any need for clarification.”

“As I write this letter, it is well after 6:00 p.m. and the government has yet to contact the Court,” she said.

“We have received the court order and we will comply,” a Social Security spokesperson said in an email statement to CNBC on Friday. The agency did not respond directly to questions from CNBC on Dudek’s comments, or make Dudek available for an interview.

The Social Security Administration sends millions of benefit checks per month to retirement and disability program beneficiaries, both through Social Security and Supplemental Security Income.

Dudek’s comments, and the implications that the court actions could interfere with the timely delivery of benefits, prompted a wave of responses from advocacy groups.

“For almost 90 years, Social Security has never missed a paycheck — but 60 days into this administration, Social Security is now on the brink,” Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in a statement in response to Dudek’s comments. Hollander’s ruling was in a lawsuit that a coalition of unions and retirees, including AFSCME, a trade union, brought against the Social Security Administration.

Dudek “has proven again that he is in way over his head,” said Saunders. He said that under Dudek’s leadership the agency has compromised Americans’ security, shut down certain agency services and planned layoffs.

In a separate statement, Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said Dudek’s leadership has been the “darkest in Social Security’s nearly 90 year history.”

“He has sown chaos and destruction,” Altman said.

In a memo sent to Social Security staff members Tuesday that was obtained by NBC News, Dudek apologized for having made mistakes and promised to learn from them.

Dudek assumed the role of acting commissioner in February when then-acting commissioner Michelle King stepped down due to DOGE privacy concerns. Dudek, a long-time Social Security employee, reportedly publicly disclosed he had been placed on administrative leave for cooperating with DOGE.

Trump has nominated Frank Bisignano, CEO of payments technology company Fiserv, to serve as commissioner. Bisignano’s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Tensions surrounding changes at the Social Security Administration have prompted a war of words between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., on March 19 put out a statement that called the current situation at the Social Security Administration a “five-alarm fire.” New changes that may limit customer service and restrict benefit access are “not just burdensome for our nation’s seniors and people with disabilities — they are back-door benefit cuts,” Neal wrote.

Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., in a March 12 statement said Democrats are “scaremongering to score political points,” while “the facts are not on their side.”

“President Trump did not touch Social Security benefits during his first term,” Smith said. “House Republicans and President Trump remain committed to protecting and preserving the retirement benefits seniors count on.”