Ranking Members Brown and Connolly Request Answers from OPM on Musk’s Private Server

Washington, D.C. —Today, Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation and Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight, sent a letter to Acting Director Charles Ezell of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) expressing their concern regarding numerous reports that Elon Musk and his associates ignored cybersecurity and privacy protections and introduced vulnerabilities into information technology systems in their attempt to send their potentially illegal “Fork in the Road” email to federal workers.

“At best, the Trump Administration’s actions at OPM to date demonstrate gross negligence, severe incompetence, and a chaotic disregard for the security of our government data and the countless services it enables our agencies to provide to the public.  At worst, we fear that Trump Administration officials know full well that their actions threaten to break our government and put our citizens at risk of foreign adversaries like China and Russia gaining access to our sensitive data.”

In the letter, Ranking Members Brown and Connolly cite reports suggesting that allies of Elon Musk revoked senior career employee access to OPM computer systems containing extremely sensitive information.  One such employee reportedly stated, “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” and “There is no oversight.  It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”  This irresponsible flouting of system controls and established policy has already exposed thousands of employees to a flood of inappropriate and spam email. 

The Ranking Members emphasized that, in addition to risking federal workers’ privacy and wellbeing, “the creation of a governmentwide employee database without a Privacy Impact Assessment would be a dangerous violation of the 2002 E-Government Act and create a one stop shop for adversaries and nefarious actors to steal federal workers’ sensitive data.”

To determine the severity of reported cybersecurity and privacy violations, Ranking Member Brown and Ranking Member Connolly and are asking for documents, information, and a briefing from the Acting OPM Director and Chief of Staff, by February 14, 2025. Click here to read the Brown-Connolly letter to Acting Director Charles Ezell. 

On Monday, Ranking Member Brown joined all Oversight Committee Democrats on a letter to President Trumprequesting documents and information regarding his “deferred resignation” offer sent en mass to the federal workforce, and urging him to rescind the offer.  The letter cites concerns that it is an illegal scam that will decimate the civil service and endanger federal employees. 

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