These guys worked for SpaceX anyway, so it's pretty much guaranteed that they were already cleared even before joining DOGE.
A lot of speculation and guessing on this topic, which is surprising from news outlets which pride themselves on "facts" and "truth"... I'm not even mentioning the fact that revealing the names, handles, identities of employees and clearing saying that they have admin rights on systems X and Y, is in itself a serious breach of cybersecurity...
Journalists' rights to publicize who works for the government is absolutely protected by the first amendment.
Republicans didn't have any problem with that when they used it to blow Valerie Plame's cover in political retaliation. Somehow now that it's Musk's army of channers stealing our data and breaking the government payment systems _some_ people have decided the first amendment is optional I guess.
Tangential, but the Plame thing was very much done by the political establishment types which tends to go beyond parties. For instance the person who outed her (Richard Armitage - Republican/Bush's Deputy Secretary of State) endorsed Clinton and was a never-Trumper. The motivation is that her husband's work (as well as her own) revealed that a lot of the pretext for the Iraq War was built on outright fabrications and lies. They apparently refused to play ball and were going public, so "they" destroyed her.
I think Democrat/Republican loses meaning in these sort of contexts. I've never once voted for a Republican in my life yet I also am extremely supportive of what's happening right now, mostly because of a strong anti-establishment inclining. I find that when powers grow too comfortable, they trend towards corruption and abuse, exactly of the Plame sort as but one tiny morsel of such. A bit of a shake-up now and then keeps everything far healthier for everybody (the country itself most of all), and it's far nicer doing it this way than by watering Jefferson's Tree of Liberty.
I assure you, as DOGE starts to look at the Pentagon, which has failed audits repeatedly, to 0 consequence, expect to hear all sorts of establishment Republican yelping.
Interns aren't around long enough to get security clearances and interns in defense companies usually work on non-classified work. The only vetting is "are you a citizen or lawful permanent resident?", for export compliance.
If an intern had access to any classified materials, it is because a crime was committed.
Internships with clearances are common in the Intelligence Community.
Homeland Security
“The Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) Internship Program is for… an exciting career in homeland security and intelligence…all selected applicants must undergo and successfully complete a background investigation and be granted a Top Secret/SCI clearance” [1]
Department of State
“Students tentatively selected for the internship program must undergo a background investigation and receive either a Secret or Top Secret security clearance.” [2]
Office of Naval Intelligence
“All interns must receive security clearances at the interim or final top-secret level with access to sensitive compartmented information (TS/SCI).” [3]
Defense Intelligence Agency
“Summer Internship Program (SIP)… To be eligible, you must…Maintain a security clearance” [4]
A lot of speculation and guessing on this topic, which is surprising from news outlets which pride themselves on "facts" and "truth"... I'm not even mentioning the fact that revealing the names, handles, identities of employees and clearing saying that they have admin rights on systems X and Y, is in itself a serious breach of cybersecurity...