A new 49-page legal disclosure – officially made public on June 5, 2026 – reveals that Trump administration officials embedded within the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) planned to falsely classify 2.7 million living people as deceased.
First reported and published by The Washington Post following an investigation by journalist Meryl Kornfield, the complaint was brought forward by Jeremiah Schofield, a 25-year veteran and former senior executive at the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Schofield is legally represented by Whistleblower Aid and the law firm Katz Banks Kumin.
According to the disclosure, which was formally released by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as part of a congressional inquiry, the plan was introduced in April 2025 when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) transmitted a list of 2.7 million names to the SSA.
Driven by DOGE official Jon Koval, the intentional data manipulation targeted immigrants, green card holders, and some U.S. citizens.
The explicit goal was to weaponize federal infrastructure to freeze these individuals out of civil society – leaving them unable to work, access bank accounts, or receive federal benefits – thereby forcing them to “self-deport” or face ICE detention when attempting to prove they were alive at local offices.
While government attorneys ultimately blocked the full mass expansion as flagrantly illegal, a pilot program was temporarily executed on roughly 6,000 living individuals before they were restored to “living” status.
The public exposure of the plan has ignited a fierce political and legal backlash, with congressional Democrats demanding immediate record preservation from the SSA and DOGE over what civil rights attorneys call a cruel, illegal attempt to weaponize core federal data.
