The letter from House Oversight Democrats asks for a list of employees that installed the equipment, the authority under which they were hired and whether they faced background investigations — a nod to a Reddit post saying employees outside OPM installed the server.
The installation of the server appears to have been a stepping stone in OPM’s work to assemble a list of federal employee emails ahead of offering the “Fork in the Road” buyout package to nearly all employees — a brainchild of Elon Musk.
But in doing so, OPM may have violated laws dictating how the agency must plan for using databases with personally identifiable information.
“At best, the Trump Administration’s actions at OPM to date demonstrate gross negligence, severe incompetence, and a chaotic disregard for the security of our government data and the countless services it enables our agencies to provide to the public,” the letter stated.
“At worst, we fear that Trump Administration officials know full well that their actions threaten to break our government and put our citizens at risk of foreign adversaries like China and Russia gaining access to our sensitive data.”
The letter also seeks details about how OPM was able to assemble a list of employees — something that appears to be done from cobbling together existing email lists and datasets. Email metadata reviewed by The Hill show multiple email subdomains and servers affiliated with the process.
Most messages to staff are handled through each agency, and the government did not previously have the capability to send such far-reaching emails.
Meanwhile, two OPM employees are asking a court to block the agency from using computer systems and emails connected with its buyout offers to federal employees.
Read more from The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch.
