Two prime Senate Democrats have referred to as for a federal investigation into Elon Musk’s reported contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his prime aides.
The senators urged the Pentagon and the Justice Department to find out whether or not the conversations, which the Kremlin has denied, ought to power a overview of the federal authorities’s contracts with Musk’s firm, SpaceX.
The Wall Street Journal reported final month that the world’s richest individual has had “a number of high-level conversations” with Putin since 2022, whereas sustaining contacts with different senior Russian officers.
Musk wrote on his Platform X on Friday that he’ll “discover out who’s making these accusations and assault them.”
In one other put up, he criticized two Democrats — Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a senior Democrat on the Armed Services and Security Committees. overseas relations – calling them “puppets” and “idiots. “.
The pair of Democrats posted a batting common of letter on Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Defense Department Inspector General Robert Storch elevating “severe questions on Musk’s trustworthiness as a authorities contractor and (safety) clearance holder.”
Donald Trump’s ally at the moment advantages from billions of {dollars} in US protection and intelligence contracts and in addition claims to carry a top-secret degree safety clearance.
“Russia’s house ambitions pose a direct risk to U.S. nationwide safety,” Reed and Shaheen write, citing stories from earlier this yr that America’s adversary has deployed an anti-space weapon that could possibly be able to attacking different low-flying satellites. Earth orbit.
The senators level out that, not like others with high-level safety clearances, Musk doesn’t report his contacts with overseas authorities officers.
They add that the billionaire’s communications with Putin’s deputy chief of employees, Sergei Kiriyenko, come because the Justice Department found that Kiriyenko and different senior officers had been concerned in an try and sow Kremlin propaganda on social media, included on the Musk-owned X (previously Twitter platform).
“For these causes, we urge a direct overview into whether or not Musk’s relationship with a number of high-level Russian officers warrants an investigation and a choice by the Department of Defense’s prime interdiction official on whether or not SpaceX ought to rule out Musk’s involvement in present or future U.S. authorities contracts,” Reed and Shaheen write.
Musk, who supported Trump’s profitable re-election bid in 2024 with marketing campaign appearances and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in donations, was tapped by the president-elect earlier this week to guide a brand new “Department of Government Efficiency” .
But he additionally participated within the incoming president’s diplomatic efforts.
Musk joined calls final week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The BBC’s American companion, CBS News, additionally reported this on Friday visited the residence of the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in New York. Washington doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Tehran.
