John Solly Is the DOGE Operative Accused of Planning to Take Social Security Data to His New Job

JOHN SOLLY, A software engineer and former member of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is the DOGE operative reportedly accused in a whistleblower complaint of telling colleagues that he stored sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data on a thumb drive and wanted to share the information with his new employer, multiple sources tell WIRED.

Since October, according to a copy of his résumé, Solly has worked as the chief technology officer for the health IT division of a government contractor called Leidos, which has already received millions in SSA contracts and could receive up to $1.5 billion in contracts with SSA based on a five-year deal it signed in 2023. Solly’s personal website and LinkedIn have been taken offline as of this week.

Responding to a request for comment, Solly, through his legal counsel, denied engaging in any wrongdoing. A spokesperson for Leidos also said the company found no evidence supporting the whistleblower’s claims against Solly.

Solly was one of 12 DOGE team members at SSA, where, according to the résumé on his personal website, he supported “other DOGE engineers on initiatives including Digital SSN, Death Master File cleanup,” and “SSN verification API (EDEN 2.0).” The “death master file” is an SSA database containing millions of Social Security records of deceased people and is maintained so that their identities can’t be used for fraud. An API, or application programming interface, allows different programs to talk to each other, including pulling data and information from each other. In this case, it could allow Social Security data to be accessed by agencies and institutions outside of SSA.