Two prominent Senate Democrats have called for a federal probe into Elon Musk’s alleged interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top officials.
Senators have urged the Pentagon and the Justice Department to investigate whether the conversations, which the Kremlin has denied, warrant a review of the federal government’s contracts with Musk’s company, SpaceX.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the world’s richest person has had “multiple, high-level conversations” with Putin since 2022, in addition to maintaining communication with other top Russian officials.
Musk said in a statement on his X page on Friday that he’s “going to find out who’s making these accusations and nuke them.”.
In another tweet, he referred to Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a prominent Democrat on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, as “puppets” and “knuckleheads.”.
On Friday, the Democrats issued a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Defence Department Inspector General Robert Storch, citing “serious questions regarding Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and [security] clearance holder.”.
The Donald Trump ally presently profits from billions of dollars in US defence and intelligence contracts, and he claims to have top-secret security clearance.
“Russia’s ambitions in the space domain pose a direct threat to US national security,” Reed and Shaheen write, pointing to reports earlier this year that the US adversary has deployed a counter-space weapon that may be capable of attacking other satellites in low-earth orbit.
The senators point out that, unlike others with high-level security clearance, Musk does not disclose his interactions with foreign government officials.
They add that the billionaire’s communications with Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, coincide with a Justice Department finding that Kiriyenko and other top officials were involved in an effort to spread Kremlin propaganda on social media, including the Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) platform.
“For these reasons, we urge an immediate review to ascertain whether Mr. Musk’s relationship with multiple high-level Russian officials warrants an investigation and a determination by the Department of Defence’s senior debarment official whether SpaceX should exclude Mr. Musk’s involvement in current or future US government contracts,” Reed and Shaheen write.
Musk, who supported Trump’s successful 2024 re-election push with campaign appearances and millions of dollars in donations, was appointed by the president-elect earlier this week to run a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
However, he has also contributed to the new president’s diplomatic efforts.
Musk has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan over the phone in the last week.
