Senior U.S. Treasury official announces retirement after clash with Musk's team over access to payment system

David A. Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the U.S. Treasury Department and a decades-long non-political appointee at the department, announced his retirement in an email sent to colleagues on Friday after clashing with Musk's representatives over access to a sensitive payment system, according to three people familiar with the matter, the Washington Post said. Trump had named Lebryk acting Treasury secretary when he took office last week. Sources said Lebryk and Musk's surrogates were at odds over access to payment systems used by the U.S. government to make trillions of dollars in payments each year. Officials under Musk's “Government Efficiency Department” have been demanding access to the system since the election. Typically, only a handful of career officials control the Treasury's payment systems, sensitive systems managed by the Fiscal Service that control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to the nation's households, businesses and more, and are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, federal workers' paychecks, payments to government contractors and grant recipients, tax refunds, and tens of thousands of other functions. It's unclear exactly why Musk's team is seeking access to these systems.