By Zachary Cohen, Alayna Treene and Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has quietly fired multiple members of the “privacy team” and other officials from the office that oversees the hiring of federal workers, a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

CNN was first notified of the firings at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in response to a freedom of information act request for records related to the security clearances of Musk and anyone from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who has been granted access to sensitive or classified government networks.

“Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team,” an OPM email address responded to CNN’s FOIA request.

In addition to the privacy team, members of OPM’s communications staff and employees who handle FOIA requests were also fired, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Some of the firings are not set to take effect until April 15, one of the sources added.

Asked about the firings, an OPM official told CNN that the agency did not lay off the entire privacy team but declined to comment further.

OPM’s privacy team is tasked with ensuring the agency’s data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public, according to its website.

OPM has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce, helping compile lists of probationary employees and sending memos to various agencies about the firings.

The move to fire OPM’s privacy and communication teams appears similar to Musk’s previous move to fire the entire media relations department at Twitter/X so all press inquiries generated back an automated “poop emoji” response.

Musk is using a similar approach to downsize the federal workforce as the one he used at X, after he took over the social media platform, a source familiar with the plans said: “They just closed the gate and then determined who actually needed to be paid based on who complained externally and internally.”

But the move to block outside access to government records related to DOGE personnel also runs counter to Musk’s claims that his team is attempting to be as transparent as possible.

Complying with requests for records is a legal duty that carries penalties enforceable in court, so while firing the people who respond to requests is perhaps an effective delaying tactic, it does not ultimately relieve the government from its legal obligation to turn over public records.

Meanwhile, a key Senate Democrat is pushing for an independent watchdog investigation into the “legality and scope” of the agreement allowing Musk and his aides to access sensitive or classified government information as part of their ongoing work for to reduce the size of the federal workforce, CNN reported last week.

The letter from Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, specifically asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Trump administration’s move to designate Musk and his associates as “special government employees,” noting the title does not afford them “carte blanche access to government data and servers.”

“I also believe that Musk and his aides are subject to various conflict of interest statutes which prohibit federal employees from participating in matters that impact their own financial interests,” Murphy wrote in his letter to the comptroller general of the United States, Eugene Dodaro.

The-CNN-Wire
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