Elon Musk ’s young foot soldiers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were caught on camera for the first time as they walked into a federal agency building—part of an apparent attempt to shut it down.
On a Sunday night episode of the investigative newsmagazine 60 Minutes, three of Elon Musk’s DOGE employees were seen walking into the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C. on February 7.
The brief clip, which was shown several times throughout the episode, showed three men wearing jackets and backpacks entering the CFPB building, along with what appeared to be a bodyguard.
“We heard from our colleagues that they’re camped out in the basement,” Hanna Hickman, a CFPB lawyer who was among those removed from the agency, told CBS’ Lesley Stahl. “They’ve posted papers on the windows to keep people from looking in. They have certainly accessed data.”
When asked who she thought the three men were, Hickman said they were probably “software engineers, college dropouts.”
“That’s what we’ve heard,” she explained. “I think if there was transparency people might feel more confident about what’s happening.”
Three hours after the group of young men walked in, their boss, Elon Musk, posted “Rest in Peace” to the CFPB on X.
President Donald Trump then appointed Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Vought quickly announced that he would stop funding the agency and instructed CFPB employees to stop working.
“I have notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties,” he posted to X on Feb. 8.
Though the CFPB building was eventually locked, the DOGE lieutenants allegedly remained holed up in the basement, only coming out to pick up lunch orders.
Sources told 60 Minutes that DOGE was given unprecedented access to the CFPB’s data systems, which contain sensitive information that requires training and background checks to handle.
CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez stated that the DOGE employees received privacy and cybersecurity training. They also signed a non-disclosure agreement.
However, the agency’s chief technologist, who resigned, stated that “those trainings alone…would not be sufficient,” and there was no mention of DOGE employees undergoing background checks.
A senior White House official stated that Musk was not involved in DOGE operations at the CFPB, and that orders were issued by Vought.
When CBS News asked what the DOGE staff was doing at the agency, the White House declined to comment.
Members of Musk’s elusive DOGE team were previously revealed to be young men (all under the age of 26) with little work experience.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the DOGE employees identified so far appeared on the 60 Minutes broadcast.
