- A DOGE staffer, who was forced to resign after being linked to racist social media posts, is back in government with fresh access to sensitive systems. Marko Elez has been assigned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since March 5, per court filings.
A 25-year-old DOGE staffer who resigned after being linked to a social media account that shared racist posts is officially back on the government’s payroll. According to court filings, Marko Elez now has access to sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor.
Elez resigned from his role at DOGE in early February after a report from the Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted account that shared posts including one claiming he was “racist before it was cool.”
The account also reportedly shared a post calling to normalize “Indian hate,” and another that suggested Gaza and Israel be “wiped off the face of the Earth.” At the time, the White House confirmed to the Journal that Elez had resigned from his government role.
However, the recent court filings reveal Elez is still working as a Labor Department aide in connection with DOGE. The court documents state Elez had been detailed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since March 5 and is also assigned to the United States Digital Service (USDS).
Elez has access to several sensitive systems within the Department of Health and Human Services including the National Directory of New Hires and the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS), which is primarily used to manage and track payments related to Medicare and Medicaid programs.
At the Department of Labor, Elez had access to four more sensitive systems: USAccess, DOL Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, DOL Directory Resource Administrator (DRA), and Unemployment Insurance Data and Related Records. The court filing notes he is the only DOL employee who has an employment relationship with DOGE and has been granted permission to access sensitive systems at the agency.
Elez has also installed two programs onto DOL systems: a code editor called Visual Studio Code and Python, a programming language, according to court filings.
The Department of Labor said it was aware Elez was simultaneously assigned to or employed by another four agencies, not including USDS.
Representatives for DOGE, the Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
Elez’s role in the Treasury Department
The 25-year-old was working in the United States Department of the Treasury when the Wall Street Journal linked him to the racist account.
After the news broke, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and U.S. President Donald Trump advocated for Elez’s reinstatement. Musk polled X users on whether he should bring back the DOGE staffer after making “inappropriate statements” while Vance said in a post on X he didn’t think “stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life.”
“We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,” Vance said. “So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
Trump later said he was “with the vice president” when questioned about Elez and Vance’s response during a news conference.
Elez’s brief stint at the Treasury also made headlines after it was revealed he was “mistakenly” given edit access over the department’s payment systems. In an affidavit, a Treasury official stated that Elez was “mistakenly” given “read/write permissions instead of read-only” in an error that was “promptly corrected.” The edit permissions were granted during Elez’s supervised, walk-through session, and an initial investigation found that “no unauthorized actions had taken place,” the official said.
In a separate court filing, another federal official said that Elez violated Treasury policies by emailing a spreadsheet containing personal information to two other members of the Trump administration. The official said he sent the sensitive information unencrypted and without prior approval, violating the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s policies on handling sensitive information.
