Musk aides got accounts on classified system with US nuclear secrets: sources
WASHINGTON − Luke Farritor and Adam Ramada, two Elon Musk aides who worked under his Department of Government Efficiency, have accounts on a sensitive National Nuclear Security Administration network holding tightly guarded information about the design and vulnerabilities of U.S. nuclear weapons, according to two people with knowledge of their access.
Farritor's and Ramada's names are listed on a sensitive network at the agency, which oversees the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons, the sources told USA TODAY. They spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Neither of the two Musk aides − a former SpaceX intern and a Miami investor − appears to have a background in nuclear weapons.
More: Elon Musk talks Lincoln Bedroom stays, late-night ice cream as he steps back from DOGE
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Ben Dietderich, chief spokesperson for the Department of Energy, said DOGE aides had never had access to the system. Farritor and Ramada's accounts on the classified system were first reported by NPR.
Users need to have a top-secret security clearance of the highest level possible at the Energy Department to access the network, according to agency rules for handling classified information. The network transmits highly classified nuclear information, including how nuclear weapons are designed and function, and vulnerabilities they may have.
Some information on the server could be used to help build a "dirty bomb" – a conventional bomb loaded with radioactive material.
More: Exclusive: DOGE staffer, 'Big Balls', provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
The presence of the two aides' names in the network does not mean they have access to everything it contains – users still need to be granted access to specific folders within it, the sources said.
"This is a highly sensitive agency, maybe one of the most sensitive in the entire government," said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow the Brookings Institution. "There are security concerns in every piece of the government due to how DOGE came in and took over."
The Trump administration – with Musk and his aides as the tip of the spear – have roiled the federal government with mass layoffs and demands for access to sensitive information at agencies including the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Labor Relations Board.
The DOGE push for access to sensitive information "is a bigger story than the firing of civil servants because it endangers all Americans," said Kamarck, who led an initiative that shrunk the federal government by 400,000 jobs during the Clinton administration.
More: Trump nukes nominee questioned on DOGE cuts, nuclear weapons testing
Amid the purge, the Trump administration laid off more than 300 probationary NNSA employees, only to backpedal and bring almost all of them back days later.
Email addresses under the names of the two Musk aides appeared at other agencies months ago, as DOGE made a sweeping effort to dismantle much of the federal government.
More: How Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has dominated Trump's agenda
Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern and member of a fellowship for college dropouts created by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, was also given access to high-level systems at the U.S. Agency for International Development in early February, according to the New York Times. He was listed as the "executive engineer" in the secretary of Health and Human Services' office, the Times also reported.
The Trump administration later dismantled USAID and fired almost all of its employees.
Ramada is a former Miami venture capitalist. He, Farritor and Ryan Riedel, recently listed as a SpaceX employee, were installed at the Department of Energy, which encompasses the NNSA, in February, Politico reported.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOGE staff got accounts on system holding nuclear secrets
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