Elon Musk’s DOGE staffers don’t have access to U.S. nuclear secrets, Energy secretary says

DOGE staffers who are working at the Department of Energy do not have access to U.S. nuclear secrets, Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC in an interview Friday.

“I’ve heard these rumors. They’re like seeing our nuclear secrets. None of that is true at all,” Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan in an exclusive interview. One of the core responsibilities of the department is maintaining and modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

The secretary said three staffers from the Elon Musk-led advisory team that the Trump administration calls the Department of Government Efficiency are working in the Energy Department’s offices.

“I know exactly who they are,” the secretary said. “They run through, checked by our security, and they have access to look around, talk to people and give us some good feedback on how things are going.”

Wright’s comments come after people familiar with the matter told CNN that a 23-year-old representative from DOGE was given access to the Energy Department’s IT system over objections from members of the general counsel and chief information offices.

The people identified the staffer to CNN as a former SpaceX intern named Luke Farritor. He was granted access to basic IT systems such as email and Microsoft 365, one of the people told CNN.

CNBC has reached out to the Department of Energy for comment on the details of CNN’s report.

DOGE staffers’ access to government systems has raised privacy concerns. Wright told CNBC that the staffers “don’t have anybody’s proprietary information.” The secretary compared the staffers to “young gun management consultants coming in to take a critical look at how things are run.”

A DOGE staff member, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal connected the 25-year-old to a social media account that made racist posts. Elez had received approval from a federal judge earlier in the day to access the Treasury Department’s payment system, but the judge restricted his ability to share data from that system.