Musk Responds to Concerns About Conflicts of Interest

 

White House advisor Elon Musk rebuffed concerns about potential conflicts of interest, stating that he was under heavy scrutiny while his government work actually disadvantages his businesses.

During the March 28 episode of “Special Report,” Fox News host Bret Baier noted Musk’s leadership in SpaceX and Starlink—both of which have entered contracts with the federal government. Baier asked Musk to tell people “there’s not a conflict of interest in how you’re doing or what you’re doing, and the contracts that you’re getting with the government.”

Musk responded by stating in part that “there’s not an action I can take that doesn’t get like scrutiny six ways to Sunday.” He added that being in the government prevented him from lobbying for “things that are advantageous to my companies and probably get it.”

Among those scrutinizing Musk’s involvement with the administration are Congressional Democrats like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

“Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes,” Warren said in a Dec. 16 letter to President Donald Trump.

More recently, Schiff questioned whether Musk violated a criminal conflict of interest statute. In a Feb. 10 letter to White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, Schiff said: “Unless you or another senior White House official, in consultation with the Office of Government Ethics, provided a written waiver prior to Mr. Musk’s appointment as a special government employee, Mr. Musk may have violated the federal criminal conflict of interest statute by undertaking acts otherwise prohibited by law.”more information, “the American people have no way of fully assessing your conflicts of interest, the extent to which those conflicts may influence your agenda within the Trump Administration, or the ways in which your financial interests are on a collision course with the public interest.”Musk’s interview came amid a barrage of lawsuits against his Department of Government Efficiency, concerns about his business interests, and a series of law enforcement actions in response to attacks on Tesla property. He is the chief executive officer of Tesla, which designs and manufactures electric vehicles.

The FBI, on March 21, released a public service announcement on “nationwide incidents targeting Tesla electric vehicles (EV), dealerships, storage lots, and charging stations.”

It said incidents involving Tesla EVs “have involved arson, gunfire, and vandalism, including graffiti expressing grievances against those the perpetrators perceive to be racists, fascists, or political opponents.”

Musk told Baier on March 28: “My companies are suffering because I’m in the government.”

Trump said on March 26 that Musk has “never asked me for a favor in business whatsoever. I’m actually a little surprised by it. I might do it, I might not do it. I do what’s right, and he'd want me to do what’s right.” In February, Trump said he wouldn’t ”let there be any conflict of interest“ and ”anything to do with possibly even space, we won’t let Elon partake in that.”

Zachary Stieber and Jacob Burg contributed to this report.