A Federal Worker Was Fired for Filming DOGE. Now She’s Running for Congress
A Federal Worker Was Fired for Filming DOGE. Now She’s Running for Congress
一名联邦雇员因拍摄“政府效率部”（DOGE）被解雇，如今她正竞选国会议员
Alexis Goldstein had just dropped her toddler off at day care and was on her way back into the office when she ran into a group of people she had never seen before attempting to access equipment that appeared to be from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). What ensued was a yearlong fight to save her job at the agency from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
亚历克西斯·戈尔茨坦（Alexis Goldstein）刚把蹒跚学步的孩子送到托儿所，在回办公室的路上，她遇到了一群从未见过的人，他们正试图接触看起来属于消费者金融保护局（CFPB）的设备。随之而来的是一场长达一年的抗争，她试图从埃隆·马斯克所谓的“政府效率部”（DOGE）手中保住自己的工作。
It was February 2025, and DOGE was conducting a wholesale assault on the US government. The operatives arrived at the CFPB on February 6. Goldstein whipped out her phone and started documenting the intruders; they turned out to be members of DOGE, including Jordan Wick and Jeremy Lewin. CFPB leadership alleged that Goldstein violated agency information security rules because the pictures she took included computer screens. After a year in administrative leave limbo, she was fired this past February.
那是2025年2月，DOGE正在对美国政府进行全面冲击。这些行动人员于2月6日抵达CFPB。戈尔茨坦掏出手机开始记录这些闯入者；他们被证实是DOGE的成员，包括乔丹·威克（Jordan Wick）和杰里米·卢因（Jeremy Lewin）。CFPB领导层声称戈尔茨坦违反了机构信息安全规定，因为她拍摄的照片中包含了电脑屏幕。在经历了长达一年的行政休假悬而未决的状态后，她于今年2月被解雇。
Like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), DOGE targeted the CFPB early on, attempting to terminate more than 1,400 of its 1,700 workers in April 2025. Musk first acknowledged his intention to destroy the small consumer protection agency in November 2024, writing on X “delete CFPB.”
与美国国际开发署（USAID）一样，DOGE很早就盯上了CFPB，并试图在2025年4月解雇其1700名员工中的1400多人。马斯克在2024年11月首次表达了摧毁这个小型消费者保护机构的意图，他在X上写道：“删除CFPB。”
Days after her firing, Goldstein announced that she would run in a crowded race for the US House of Representatives as a Democrat in Maryland’s 6th congressional district against incumbent April McClain Delaney. WIRED spoke to Goldstein about her experiences in the government and with DOGE—and how her experience as a federal worker inspired her to run for office.
在被解雇几天后，戈尔茨坦宣布她将作为民主党人参加马里兰州第6国会选区的美国众议院议员竞选，挑战现任议员阿普丽尔·麦克莱恩·德莱尼（April McClain Delaney）。《连线》（WIRED）杂志采访了戈尔茨坦，谈论了她在政府工作以及与DOGE打交道的经历，以及她作为联邦雇员的经历如何激励她投身政坛。
WIRED: Can you walk me through the situation that got you fired?
《连线》：你能详细说明一下导致你被解雇的情况吗？
Alexis Goldstein: DOGE arrived at the CFPB, and I was on-site that day because the union had been tabling in the lobby all week, trying to show people we were still there for them. We had gotten word that DOGE was probably coming that day. I had dropped my kid off at day care and was pushing my stroller through the basement when I saw some people I had never seen before who didn’t have CFPB badges but had a CFPB computer. I put my phone in the cupholder and started filming through the window, trying to be subtle, but they saw me and moved to a room that didn’t have a window.
亚历克西斯·戈尔茨坦： DOGE抵达了CFPB，我那天正好在现场，因为工会整周都在大厅设摊，试图向人们展示我们依然在为他们服务。我们得到消息说DOGE可能那天会来。我送完孩子去托儿所，推着婴儿车穿过地下室时，看到了一些我从未见过的人，他们没有CFPB的胸牌，却拿着一台CFPB的电脑。我把手机放在杯架里，透过窗户开始拍摄，试图保持低调，但他们发现了我，并转移到了一个没有窗户的房间。
So I went in and introduced myself and asked who they were, because we have all this training that says we are all responsible for safeguarding the sensitive data we have, whether it’s from consumers or the companies we regulate. I started filming and asking them their names and whether they’d had the proper training to handle our sensitive information. One of them ran out of the room immediately. Another one, Jeremy Lewin, the guy that dismantled USAID who looks approximately 18 years old even though he’s almost 30, ran into the corner, and they called security on me. [Lewin and CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.]
于是我走进去做了自我介绍，并询问他们是谁，因为我们接受过所有培训，明确我们每个人都有责任保护我们所掌握的敏感数据，无论是来自消费者还是我们监管的公司。我开始拍摄并询问他们的名字，以及他们是否接受过处理我们敏感信息的适当培训。其中一个人立即跑出了房间。另一个人，即拆解了USAID的杰里米·卢因（Jeremy Lewin）——他看起来大约18岁，尽管他快30岁了——跑到了角落里，他们还叫了保安来对付我。[卢因和CFPB未回应置评请求。]
You were put on administrative leave for a year before being fired. What was that like, and when did you find out you were fired?
你被行政休假了一年才被解雇。那段经历是怎样的？你是什么时候得知自己被解雇的？
Alexis Goldstein: Answering this is a little hard, because they fired a third of the CFPB the next week. So I just got fired with everybody else, then we got unfired, then we got fired again, then we got unfired. It wasn’t really until around May that I was in limbo on my admin leave specifically.
亚历克西斯·戈尔茨坦： 回答这个问题有点困难，因为第二周他们就解雇了CFPB三分之一的员工。所以我只是和大家一起被解雇了，然后我们又被“撤销解雇”，接着又被解雇，然后又被“撤销解雇”。直到5月份左右，我才真正处于行政休假的悬而未决状态。
In some ways, I wasn’t worried about my own situation. I was worried about everybody’s. There was only a court order keeping the CFPB open. At one point it went to the DC Circuit, and we were waiting for their decision. Every day that passed, people would be like, “We made it through another day!”
在某种程度上，我并不担心自己的处境。我担心的是大家的情况。当时只有一项法院命令维持着CFPB的运作。有一次案件到了哥伦比亚特区巡回法院，我们都在等待他们的裁决。每一天过去，大家都会说：“我们又撑过了一天！”
My situation didn’t become a real stressor until the inspector general asked to speak to me at the end of June. I thought it was going to be a productive conversation, because they were investigating DOGE. But they were like, “Isn’t what you did as bad as what DOGE did? If they had a computer open and your camera caught a tiny bit of that computer, didn’t you do the same thing, if you’re saying that we should be concerned that DOGE shared information?” It was a very hostile interview, and I felt like I was being scapegoated.
直到6月底监察长要求与我谈话时，我的处境才真正成为压力源。我以为那会是一次富有成效的谈话，因为他们正在调查DOGE。但他们却说：“你做的事情难道不和DOGE做的一样糟糕吗？如果他们打开了电脑，而你的摄像头拍到了那台电脑的一小部分，如果你说我们应该担心DOGE共享信息，那你自己不也做了同样的事吗？”那是一次非常有敌意的审问，我觉得自己成了替罪羊。
Then you don’t hear from them. They go away and do their thing. I didn’t know what was going on until December, when I got a letter that was a proposal to fire me. In that letter was a document from the inspector general saying they found no wrongdoing. But between July and December, I had no idea. I didn’t do anything wrong, and I knew that. But in this environment, that doesn’t matter.
然后你就再也没有他们的消息了。他们离开后各忙各的。直到12月我收到一封解雇建议信，我才知道发生了什么。信中有一份来自监察长的文件，称他们没有发现任何不当行为。但在7月到12月之间，我一无所知。我没有做错任何事，我很清楚这一点。但在这种环境下，这并不重要。
What data were you worried about DOGE accessing?
你担心DOGE获取什么数据？
Alexis Goldstein: Broadly, everyone was worried about the same kind of stuff they were worried about DOGE getting at other agencies, like the Social Security Administration. But at the CFPB, the kind of personal data we have is more like what is happening to you in your most vulnerable financial moment. You are facing foreclosure, and there’s a lot of personally identifiable information that goes into that if you call our foreclosure hotline.
亚历克西斯·戈尔茨坦： 从广义上讲，大家担心的都是他们担心DOGE在其他机构（如社会保障局）获取的那类东西。但在CFPB，我们掌握的个人数据更像是你在最脆弱的财务时刻所经历的事情。你面临丧失抵押品赎回权，如果你拨打我们的止赎热线，其中会涉及大量个人身份信息。
For me specifically, one of the projects I worked on was an inquiry into big tech-payment platforms like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App, and all of that. We had been going back and forth with very fancy attorneys from Apple and Amazon, and they would constantly tell us how sensitive the data we were asking for was. They made a big deal about trade secrets and how their nightmare was that it would be compromised in any way.
就我个人而言，我参与的项目之一是对苹果支付（Apple Pay）、谷歌支付（Google Pay）、Cash App等大型科技支付平台的调查。我们一直在与苹果和亚马逊的高级律师进行交涉，他们不断告诉我们，我们索要的数据有多么敏感。他们非常看重商业机密，并表示他们的噩梦就是这些机密以任何方式泄露。
So when there was all this reporting before the inauguration about Elon Musk coming in with DOGE, and he wants to launch X Money, which is a payments platform—I was worried they were going to get essentially all of the trade secrets of every one of Elon’s potential competitors. You could create a monopoly with that kind of information. [X Money, Musk’s banking tool, could soon launch publicly, Bloomberg reported last week.]
所以，当就职典礼前有大量报道称埃隆·马斯克将带着DOGE入驻，并且他想要推出支付平台X Money时——我担心他们会获取埃隆所有潜在竞争对手的几乎所有商业机密。利用这些信息，你可以建立垄断。[彭博社上周报道称，马斯克的银行工具X Money可能很快就会公开发布。]
How has DOGE’s influence at the CFPB affected the agency? How is this harming consumers?
DOGE在CFPB的影响力如何影响了该机构？这对消费者造成了怎样的伤害？
Alexis Goldstein: They’ve essentially halted the…
亚历克西斯·戈尔茨坦： 他们基本上已经停止了……