Federal Employee Fired for Recording DOGE. He is now running for Congress

Alexis Goldstein was she just dropped her son off at day care and was returning to the office when she met a group of people she had never seen before trying to find the tools that seemed to be coming from them. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). What happened was a year-long struggle to save his job from an organization called Elon Musk. Department of Public Works.

It was February 2025and DOGE was committing treason against the US government. The staff arrived at the CFPB on February 6. Goldstein pulled out his phone and began typing in entries; became members of the DOGE, incl Jordan Wick and Jeremy Lewin. CFPB officials said Goldstein violated the agency’s data protection rules because the photos he took included computer screens. After a year on administrative leave, he was fired February.

Like US Agency for International Development (USAID), DOGE looked at the CFPB initially, trying to eliminate more than 1,400 of the 1,700 employees in April 2025. Musk initially admitted his intention to destroy the small consumer protection agency in November 2024. writing on X “get rid of the CFPB.”

A few days after the shooting, Goldstein announced that he would run in a crowded race for the US House of Representatives as a Democrat in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District against April McClain Delaney. WIRED spoke with Goldstein about his experiences in government and with the DOGE — and how his experiences as a public servant inspired him to run for office.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

WIRED: Can you walk me through what got you fired?

Alexis Goldstein: DOGE came to the CFPB, and I was there that day because the union sat in the lobby all week, trying to show people that we’re still in it. We heard that the DOGE might be coming that day. I had dropped my son off at daycare and was pushing a walker downstairs when I saw some people I’d never seen before who didn’t have CFPB badges but had a CFPB computer. I put my phone in the cup and started recording on the window trying to be discreet but he saw me moving to the room that didn’t have a window.

So I went in and introduced myself and asked who it was, because we have all these courses that say we all have a responsibility to protect our content, whether it’s from consumers or the companies we control. I started taking pictures and asking them their names and if they were properly trained to handle our private affairs. One of them ran out of the room immediately. Another one, Jeremy Lewin, the guy who hacked USAID who looks about 18 even though he’s in his 30s, ran into the corner, and he called security for me. (Lewin and the CFPB did not respond to requests for comment.)

You were placed on administrative leave for one year before being fired. What was it like, and when did you know you were fired?

Answering this is a little difficult, because they fired a third of the CFPB the following week. So I just got fired by everyone else, so we didn’t get fired, then we got fired again, then we got fired. It wasn’t really until the end of May that I was confused about my admin leaving.

Sometimes I didn’t worry about myself. I was worried about everyone. There was only a court order to keep the CFPB open. At some point it went to the DC Circuit, and we were waiting for their decision. Every day that goes by, people are like, “We made it another day!”