Democratic senators are asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether tech billionaire Elon Musk, a senior adviser to President Trump, is leveraging his government position to pressure advertisers into spending more on his social media platform, X.
In a letter dated Wednesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the five senators pointed to recent reporting indicating that, in 2024, as Musk was preparing to take on his “influential” new role in the Trump administration, X was pressuring advertisers who boycotted the platform to return and “threatening policy repercussions if advertisers do not cooperate.”
“If Musk acts on threats that X is reportedly making to advertisers, and uses his government position to protect those who engage in business with him — or harm those who do not — then he risks running afoul of criminal ethics laws,” read the letter sent by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (Md.).
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) would have the responsibility to investigate such misconduct by a public official,” they added.
The letter comes after The Wall Street Journal reported last month that an attorney at X told the advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group to “get its clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else.”
The threat came amid a pending merger between Interpublic and its biggest rival, Omnicom Group. That merger, the senators noted, “requires review by antitrust enforcers such as the DOJ.”
“Interpublic understood the implication of this threat: if its advertisers do not generate more revenue for X, it would face the risk that Musk could use his power in the Trump Administration to delay, or even block, Interpublic’s pending $13 billion dollar merger with its rival,” the senators wrote.
The Hill has reached out to DOJ and X for comment.
The same group of senators sent a related letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi of the DOJ’s antitrust division, asking them “to independently evaluate the Interpublic merger that Musk may be threatening.”
The senators said they were concerned that officials at X could “be attempting to strike a quid-pro-quo deal, pressuring Interpublic to get its clients to spend a certain amount on advertising on X in exchange for directing President Trump to use his antitrust enforcement agencies to allow Interpublic’s merger with Omnicom to proceed.”
“Musk is not above the law by virtue of being the world’s richest man,” they added. “If evidence emerges that Musk is, in fact, using his official role to coerce advertisers or is participating in particular matters in which he has a financial interest, we ask that DOJ investigate the potential violation of federal ethics laws, as the Department should for any other federal employee who appears to be breaking the law.”
