WASHINGTON, D.C.—On February 7, 12 Democratic United States House members, including Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) of King County, submitted a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Office of Government Ethics alleging conflicts of interest with Elon Musk as a federal employee.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has taken a forefront role in the Trump administration as the de facto leader of DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency. The acronym is misleading; DOGE is not actually a department akin to the DOJ or Department of Defense, which are chaired by Cabinet members after a Senate confirmation process. Instead, it’s an executive program within the Obama-era United States Digital Service, which Trump renamed to the “United States DOGE Service” in a January 20 executive order.
Classified as a “Special Government Employee” (SGE), Musk’s federal position is officially unclear. He does, however, seem to wield complete administrative control over DOGE to the point that, after encouragement from Vice President JD Vance, Musk rehired a DOGE staffer who had resigned after being linked to racist and pro-eugenics tweets by the Wall Street Journal.
Democrats have moved to battle recent actions by DOGE. “Trump handed over your Social Security number to Elon Musk and his cronies,” Rep. Jayapal posted on X, announcing her support for a House bill that would place higher restrictions on access to Treasury Department records, including taxpayer personal information that extends to “the names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates and bank account information of millions of Americans,” according to New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.
The February 7 letter, signed by members of the House Judiciary Committee, specifically questions Musk’s “sprawling financial interests in federal contracts and subsidies.” Musk’s company SpaceX, which owns satellite provider Starlink, has received “approximately $1.7 billion from NASA, $1.3 billion from the Air Force, and $199.2 million from the Defense Information Systems Agency over the past 12 months – this is approximately $3.3 billion in unclassified revenue,” the House letter states.
As an SGE, Musk is subject to the same law as any standard federal employee and thus prohibited from “participating personally and substantially in a particular Government matter that will affect his own financial interests,” per Title 18 of U.S. Code. The letter points out that, while exemptions can be made for SGEs with “not-so-substantial” financial interests, the billion-dollar taxpayer infusions into Musk’s companies are hardly insubstantial.
The signees also consider Musk’s federal involvement to be a violation of the Impartiality Regulation, a part of the Code of Federal Regulations that “requires federal employees to recuse themselves not only from matters affecting their financial interests, but also from those affecting the financial interests of closely affiliated persons or organizations.”
It’s uncertain if newly appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously worked at the America First Policy Institute and has been described as a “longtime Trump loyalist”, will duly consider the reasoning within the House letter. However, Jayapal, who personally accused Musk of “gutting federal programs to enrich himself”, made it clear that her efforts won’t be losing any steam. “That’s plainly corrupt & we’re not going to let it slide,” she stated on X.
Author: Kayvon Bumpus
