The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is resisting a request from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to gain read and write access to specific agency records.
According to individuals familiar with the matter, DOGE member Eliezer Mishory asked Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda to let him review and modify internal staff emails, personnel files, contracts, and payment systems. Bloomberg reported that SEC leadership, including Uyeda, has pushed back on the request.
It is not clear if Mishory or anyone on the DOGE team has been allowed to view or edit the data in question. As the country’s top securities regulator, the SEC keeps large volumes of sensitive information that involves ongoing investigations, whistleblower identities, trading records, and details about market strategies.
Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and a consultant well-known in Washington, was confirmed by the US Senate to serve as the new SEC chair, but he has yet to be sworn in. During his confirmation hearing, Atkins said he would be open to working with DOGE on “creating efficiencies in the agency.” Meanwhile, the SEC charged Musk, who leads DOGE, in January for not properly disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares.
Mishory has been representing the government efficiency group at the SEC since arriving this month. He was previously a top attorney at Kalshi Inc., a prediction market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
DOGE has been eyeing cuts at the SEC
Earlier, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team arrived at the SEC to streamline the agency, which has already seen hundreds of employees accept buyouts.
An SEC email instructed staff to cooperate with DOGE and give it the required access to confidential data while respecting all ethical guidelines. Despite this, the SEC and Musk have a tense relationship. The agency recently voted to continue a lawsuit accusing Musk of violating securities laws by failing to report his accumulation of Twitter stock in 2022 before acquiring the platform.
Musk reacted to the lawsuit on social media. “They spend their time on s—like this when there are so many actual crimes that go unpunished,” he wrote when the suit was filed earlier this year. Observers now question whether the SEC’s downsizing will undermine its ability to pursue market wrongdoers, keep markets fair, and help companies raise capital. According to Reuters, about 12% of SEC staff have taken buyouts since President Donald Trump entrusted Musk with making big cuts to federal agencies.
The White House views these steps as ways to increase efficiency. Some critics, however, call them stealth deregulation because they effectively weaken an agency by removing its personnel and resources without using the normal rulemaking or legislative process. David Noll, a Rutgers Law School professor, has labeled this approach “administrative sabotage.” He notes that past administrations, such as President Carter’s in the 1970s, pursued deregulation of airlines, trucking, and railroads with legislation or formal rule changes.
Trump and Musk have moved quickly to close SEC offices, gain control over computer data, interfere with payment systems, and reduce staff levels. The SEC is ending leases for its regional offices in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. “They’re using questionably legal layoffs to reduce the agencies’ capacity to regulate,” says Noll.
Some former officials worry that the agency’s institutional knowledge is suffering. “There are a lot of high quality people there, and a lot have now retired, taking with them significant technical expertise that the agency will miss,” says one former SEC enforcement official who served under a Republican administration.
“It’s a political exercise,” that person adds. “It absolutely has nothing to do with cost savings, because the cost savings are a rounding error in the federal budget.”
