After the New York Times reported that South African centibillionaire Elon Musk was going to be shown top-secret U.S. war plans while visiting the Department of Defense, Musk called the report false and issued a warning to would-be leakers within the federal government.
"I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to [the Times]," Musk posted on his social media platform X.
But according to new reporting in Politico, this is only hardening the resolve of federal workers opposed to President Donald Trump and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The outlet reported that roughly a half dozen federal employees speaking anonymously are not only promising to continue leaking to the media, but are planning to firm up their information security practices to avoid detection.
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"We are public servants, not Elon’s servants," one Food & Drug Administration employee told Politico. "The public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive and deceptive all of this has been and continues to be."
Federal employees have largely insisted on only communicating with the media through apps with end-to-end encryption, like Signal (Whatsapp is also a popular messaging app with end-to-end encryption). A staffer at the National Institutes of Health said they've even started putting their phone on airplane mode, or not having it on their person when talking to coworkers under the assumption that "there are cameras and listening devices everywhere." That employee added that they don't trust anyone wanting to talk who doesn't have Signal and doesn't want to meet in-person.
One U.S. Department of Agriculture worker argued that leakers were "patriots" who are helping to provide necessary transparency to what's happening behind the scenes at federal agencies. And an unnamed senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asserted that Musk himself was a "leaker," referencing a report in which DOGE representatives allegedly set up a private server at the Office of Personnel Management, potentially jeopardizing the privacy of millions of federal employees.
"When you put hard drives on data systems at government agencies you are creating the biggest security breaches we have seen in years and years. Possibly ever," the FAA employee said.
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Click here to read Politico's full report.