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Top SEC Official Reportedly Quit Over Leadership’s Soft Pedaling of Trump-Linked Cases
New reporting reveals that the top enforcement official at the Securities and Exchange Commission clashed with agency leaders over cases involving billionaires Elon Musk and Justin Sun.
Mar 24, 2026
The top enforcement official at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency tasked with investigating insider trading and other illegal activity in financial markets, resigned last week after reportedly clashing with the regulatory body's leadership over the handling of cases linked to President Donald Trump.
Reuters reported Monday that Margaret Ryan, who until last week served as director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, "wanted to be more aggressive in pursuing charges for fraud and other misconduct, including in cases that touched the president's circle, but faced resistance from SEC chair Paul Atkins and other top Republican political appointees."
Ryan, who previously served as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, lasted just under seven months in the SEC role, which observers said is unusual. According to Reuters, one case that "sparked tension" between Ryan and SEC leadership "involved cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial venture."
Earlier this month—less than two weeks before Ryan announced her departure from the agency—the SEC dismissed a case against Sun that the Biden administration brought in 2023, accusing the billionaire of violating "antifraud and market manipulation provisions of the federal securities laws."
Reuters reported that another case over which Ryan and SEC leaders clashed "involved Tesla boss Elon Musk, a big donor to Trump's campaign who briefly served as the president's special adviser."
"March court filings showed that the SEC is in talks with Musk to settle charges that he waited too long to disclose in 2022 that he had amassed a large stake in Twitter, which he later bought and renamed X. That allowed Musk to buy more shares at artificially low prices, it said. The agency filed the charges a week before Trump took power in January last year."
"During a March 4 court hearing, the details of which were first reported by the FT, a lawyer for Musk said those talks were with officials above the SEC staff working on the case, the transcript shows," the outlet continued. "While it is common for the agency to settle litigation out of court, it had strong cases against both Sun and Musk and a good chance of winning tougher penalties in court, according to securities lawyers who had been tracking the proceedings."
Bombshell reporting alleging that the @SECGov enforcement director suddenly quit 6-mo into the job over the political appointees going too easy on Justin Sun & Muskhttps://t.co/t88oOk3AUu
— Amanda Fischer (@amandalfischer) March 23, 2026
Ryan's abrupt departure comes at a time when a small number of unidentified traders and gamblers are making huge, suspiciously timed bets related to major US foreign policy decisions, including in Venezuela and Iran. The lucrative bets have sparked concerns that members of Trump's inner circle are illegally profiting off nonpublic information—and potentially influencing life-or-death government decisions.
The New York Times noted that Ryan's exit could "further embolden" Atkins, the Trump-appointed SEC chair, to "rein in the agency’s enforcement division."
"Well before Ms. Ryan arrived," the Times reported last week, "the agency had begun to retreat from a variety of Biden-era enforcement priorities, including cracking down on Wall Street and the cryptocurrency industry."
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'Massive, Illegal, and Horrific Breach': Ex-DOGE Staffer Allegedly Stole Social Security Data
"Americans deserve timely, honest answers about what happened, whose information may have been exposed, what will be done to protect them going forward," said one campaigner.
Mar 10, 2026
Critics of the Department of Government Efficiency are sounding the alarm after the Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Social Security Administration's inspector general is investigating a whistleblower complaint accusing a former DOGE staffer of trying to share information from SSA databases with his private employer.
The Post didn't name the former DOGE software engineer, the company, or the whistleblower. However, the reporters spoke with the whistleblower and other unnamed sources, and also reviewed the related complaint as well as a letter from the acting inspector general to top members of four congressional committees.
The ex-DOGE staffer allegedly told multiple colleagues that he possessed two key databases of sensitive information on over 500 million living and dead US citizens, "Numident" and the "Master Death File," and once he removed personal details, he wanted to plug the remaining data into his company's system.
The newspaper noted that "the complaint does not allege that the engineer was successful in uploading the data to the company's system," and "a lawyer who represents the former DOGE member told the Post he denied all alleged wrongdoing."
The reporting adds to a long list of concerns and criticism provoked by DOGE, which President Donald Trump launched shortly after taking office. Billionaire Elon Musk was the de facto leader of the government-gutting initiative until he departed the administration last May.
Responding to the report on Musk's social media platform X, Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.), a longtime defender of Social Security, declared that "we need a full congressional investigation and answers!"
DOGE was never about efficiency or saving $—it was about handing Social Security over to Wall Street, dismantling public services & making it impossible to hold corporations accountable. That's why federal workers have been sounding the alarm—and we won't stop fighting back. #wetookanoath
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— Federal Workers United (@fedworkersunited.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 4:54 PM
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) announced that he is expanding his investigation of DOGE-related data leaks at the SSA over the allegations. He said in a statement that "the deeply disturbing whistleblower information obtained by the committee shows the Trump administration's callous disregard for the safety and security of Americans' most sensitive information."
"Not only has an ex-DOGE bro been accused of running around with the social security information of every American on a flash drive, he also may have the ability to edit and manipulate data at the Social Security Administration at will," Garcia continued. "This is dangerous and outrageous, and Oversight Committee Democrats will fight for transparency and accountability."
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, similarly said: "Allegations that a 'DOGE bro' may have removed highly sensitive Social Security data onto a thumb drive should set off alarm bells across the country. Social Security holds some of the most personal information Americans have, including Social Security numbers, birth and health records, and lifetime earnings histories. If these reports are accurate, it is a stunning, illegal data security breach."
"Americans deserve timely, honest answers about what happened, whose information may have been exposed, what will be done to protect them going forward," he argued. "Anyone involved must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Congress and the Social Security inspector general must move quickly to get the facts and ensure that all involved in this reported data breach are punished."
Criminal theft of the American people's private Social Security data.
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— Social Security Works (@socialsecurityworks.org) March 10, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert also demanded accountability. She said that "this massive, illegal, and horrific breach of Americans' most sensitive data has confirmed the very fears we've been warning about for over a year—that the Trump administration allowing DOGE to infiltrate our government without oversight created fertile ground for abuse, and in this case of an exceptionally egregious kind."
"These are the kinds of breaches that Public Citizen had previously sued the government to prevent," she added. "Federal and state officials must ensure the misuse of this data ends immediately and that all private copies of Social Security data are destroyed. Prosecutors should open a criminal investigation immediately and, if the evidence supports it, prosecute this case aggressively."
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‘Astonishing Stat’: Billionaires Gave Nearly 20% of Donations in 2024 US Federal Elections
"For a representative democracy like ours to work, citizens must have some confidence that, through... political engagement, they have a fighting chance to turn their priorities into government policy," said an elections expert.
Mar 09, 2026
Billionaires exerted an unprecedented amount of influence over the 2024 US federal elections, accounting for almost one-fifth of the nearly $16 billion spent to elect candidates during that cycle, according to a New York Times analysis published Monday.
Just 300 billionaires and their immediate families poured an unprecedented $3 billion into the election, either giving directly to candidates or through political action committees.
These individuals represent just about 0.0087% of the 3.46 million people who donated more than $200 to one or multiple candidates during the election cycle.
And yet, with an average donation of $10 million apiece—equivalent to what 100,000 typical donors would give—they amounted to about 19% of all spending, allowing their interests to be pushed to the center of major races.
The Times highlighted the extraordinary role that billionaire fundraisers played in pushing Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) over the finish line in his bid to unseat the three-term incumbent Democrat, then-Sen. Jon Tester.
Sheehy's long shot campaign was given a boost by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who donated $8 million to his super PAC after previously investing $150 million in the candidate's struggling firefighting business, which helped seed his campaign.
As the report explains, Schwarzman "was not the only financial heavyweight in Mr. Sheehy’s corner":
At least 64 billionaires and 37 of their immediate family members donated directly to his campaign, a New York Times analysis found. When also accounting for money that flowed through political committees that support Mr. Sheehy, an analysis shows that billionaires contributed about $47 million in the race that Mr. Sheehy went on to win.
Sheehy's campaign drew support from a who's who of GOP power brokers: Jeff Yass, the founder of the Pennsylvania-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group and a major funder of Trump's massive White House ballroom project; the Uihlein family, which owns Uline shipping and has been central to backing anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, and election-denialist causes; and Florida hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, who spent $12 million to stop an initiative in the state to legalize marijuana.
In installing Sheehy, the ultrawealthy bought themselves "a key ally on tax policies that benefit the wealthy" who "cosponsored a proposal to eliminate the estate tax," the Times reported.
While billionaires still have their talons in both political parties, the Times noted a distinct shift toward Republicans in 2024—for every one dollar given to Democrats, five went to the GOP in the election.
Trump, who openly begged for donations from oil tycoons on the campaign trail, was the single largest beneficiary of this avalanche of spending.
According to a study by Americans for Tax Fairness in October 2024, less than a month before election day, Trump had already received $450 million from 150 billionaire families, 75% of their $600 million total to major candidates, and three times Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris's $143 million.
By the end of the campaign, Trump and his affiliated PACs would amass more than $250 million from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and more than $100 million from both the pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson and the banking heir Timothy Mellon, according to OpenSecrets.
Trump has since appointed more than a dozen billionaires to administration positions, including Musk, who was tasked with eviscerating public spending as the de facto head of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).
But as the Times reported, "Many of those billionaires are not only hoping to reshape the federal government... but to win influence in state legislatures, city councils, school boards, and courthouses."
"Ultrawealthy donors... have helped overhaul political leadership and policy in states across the country, expanding private charter schools, restricting abortion rights, advancing artificial intelligence in government, and blocking laws that would make it harder to evict tenants," the report explained.
As the 2026 midterm cycle begins, another spending blitz is coming. As the Times reported last month, the artificial intelligence industry, crypto industry, the pro-Israel lobby, and Trump's super PAC have each amassed war chests of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to help elect their allies to Congress.
Silicon Valley billionaires, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, meanwhile,have collectively dumped tens of millions into stopping a proposal in California for a one-time 5% tax on billionaires in the state, which would replace Medicaid funding slashed by Republicans' massive budget law last year.
The explosion in spending by the ultrarich has come quickly. Where billionaires spent just $16.6 million to influence the 2008 election cycle, that number has steadily ballooned up to $3 billion in 2024, a more than 12,000% increase when adjusted for inflation.
Daniel Weiner, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice's elections and government program, said that the "astonishing stat" was a "legacy of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision" in 2010, which allowed billionaire-funded dark money groups to spend unlimited amounts of cash on political communication advocating for candidates.
"The resulting collapse of campaign finance rules has combined with a resurgence in the sort of high-level self-dealing that was pervasive during the Gilded Age, when bribery and graft were common, and corporations used their wealth to secure monopolies, government subsidies, and other benefits," Weiner wrote for TIME on Monday.
"As in the past, the question now is who will offer Americans a real alternative, including a commitment to stamp out self-dealing in all three branches of the government," he said, recommending a constitutional amendment to restore campaign finance limits tossed aside by the Supreme Court, a ban on spending by government contractors seeking contracts, and bans on congressional stock trading.
"For a representative democracy like ours to work, citizens must have some confidence that, through voting and other forms of political engagement, they have a fighting chance to turn their priorities into government policy," he concluded. "Far too many Americans have lost that faith, and they identify pervasive corruption at the top of our government as a big part of the reason. But cycles of corruption followed by reform are an enduring feature of American history. A new round of ambitious reform is overdue."
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