Almost Fired For Working With DOGE, Social Security Fraud Expert Now Leads The Agency

Leland Dudek was an obscure bureaucrat at the Social Security Administration who dedicated his career to stopping fraud. But when he worked with the Department of Government Efficiency to do just that, he came close to being fired.

“At 4:30pm EST, my boss called me to tell me I had been placed on administrative leave pending an Investigation,” Dudek wrote on LinkedIn. “They want to fire me for cooperating with DOGE,” he wrote in a now-deleted post obtained by The Daily Wire.

Then, a stunning reversal occurred. It was Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King who was gone from the agency. And Dudek was reinstated with a big promotion — taking her job leading the massive agency on an interim basis.

The Washington Post reported that King exited the agency after refusing to let DOGE access agency data. But it has not been reported that Dudek was facing punishment for cooperating with them.

Dudek, a career civil servant, is an example of how there are a few fiscally conscious longtime government employees, and how the Trump administration and DOGE can maximize their impact by joining forces with people who know where the bodies are buried.

The LinkedIn post said “I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA. I mailed myself publicly accessible documents and explained them to DOGE. I confess. I moved contractor money around to add data science resources to my anti-fraud team. I confess. I asked where the fat was and is in our contracts so we can make the right tough choices.”

“I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” it continued. “Everything I have ever done is in service to our country, our beneficiaries, and our agency.”

The Social Security Administration and the White House did not return requests for comment.

The Social Security commissioner was traditionally appointed to six-year terms and would continue on between presidential administrations. But Joe Biden destroyed that precedent when he fired the person who Trump appointed in his first term.

Biden’s Social Security Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, seemed to view agency employees, perhaps even more than taxpayers and beneficiaries, as his constituency. He signed a last-minute deal with the employee union in November 2024 granting them telework through 2029, then resigned days later to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee, leading King to assume the top role on an acting basis. Now, Dudek will serve in that role until Trump’s nominee, Frank Bisignano, is confirmed by the Senate.

The Social Security Administration is a prime opportunity to use data to find government waste and fraud, from illegal immigrants using other people’s Social Security numbers to people pretending to be disabled to get benefits.