Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is expressing her concerns about apparent conflicts of interest posed by Elon Musk serving as a top adviser in the new administration and asking for President-elect Trump to explain what ethics standards will apply to the billionaire businessman.
She wants to know whether Musk has complied with the Trump transition team’s ethics standards and whether he’s signed its code of conduct.
“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 wrote in a letter to Trump on Monday.
Warren noted that Musk “has billed himself as an extraordinarily influential figure” in Trump’s orbit, joined one of the president-elect’s calls to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and met secretly with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.
She also pointed out that Musk has been named co-chair of Trump’s newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” and will have an influential role in recommending major spending cuts.
“He has been referred to as ‘America’s most powerful private citizen.’ But Mr. Musk is no ordinary citizen. He is CEO of several companies that have significant interests before the federal government,” Warren wrote, adding that Tesla, which Musk heads, obtained nearly $42 million in government contracts to provide electric vehicles (EVs) and services to the federal government.
She also observed that Tesla recently struck a deal as part of the Biden administration’s plan to provide billions of dollars to fund EV charging stations by agreeing to modify Tesla’s charging network to be compatible with competitors’ vehicles.
And she highlighted the $20 billion in government contracts received by another Musk company, SpaceX, to provide rocket launches for missions to the International Space Station and to place national security satellites into orbit.
“In addition to their substantial dependence on government contracts and other forms of direct and indirect government support, SpaceX, Tesla, and Mr. Musk’s other companies have an ongoing interest in how the government does or does not enforce labor laws, workplace safety rules, environmental regulations, and other federal laws,” Warren wrote.
The Massachusetts senator argued that Musk’s “substantial private interests present a massive conflict of interest” with his role as Trump’s “unofficial co-president.”
She cited two reports from the past week raising what she said may be Musk’s “clear conflicts of interest” related to advice he is providing the president-elect and his team.
She noted that Musk this month released a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settlement demand related to his purchase of Twitter, revealing that he may be charged with securities fraud.
And she raised a red flag over the disclosure that Musk’s company Neuralink is facing an SEC investigation.
She also argued that Tesla would benefit from the incoming Trump administration’s recommending a repeal of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s requirement that companies report crash data from automated vehicles.
She explained that federal ethics rules for government employees are designed to protect the public from conflicts of interest and to ensure government employees are working for the public interest instead of their own financial interests.
While Warren acknowledged that Musk is not a federal employee, she said he needs to be subject to ethics standards for federal workers because “the conflicts he faces are enormous.”
She quoted from the Trump transition team’s ethics plan that states team members will avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest and bars team members from working on particular matters with parties that may benefit from the outcome.
Warren is asking Trump to divulge whether Musk has recused himself from any discussions or decisions by the Department of Government Efficiency and whether he will recuse himself from matters affecting Tesla, SpaceX, social platform X, or any other company in which he has a substantial investment.
Warren has asked for Trump’s transition team to provide answers no later than Dec. 23.
