Democrats renew call for probe of Musk-Putin ties
Source: Roll Call
Posted May 16, 2025 at 6:30am
Nearly seven months after a published report said billionaire Elon Musk had repeatedly held phone conversations with Vladimir Putin and other high-level Russians, there is no sign the Defense Department is reassessing Musk’s role as a major defense contractor with a top-secret security clearance.
Senior Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee called last November for the Biden administration to review Musk’s clearance and consider whether he should continue to be involved in SpaceX contracts. They reiterated those calls in interviews this week.
If any other U.S. defense contractor with a top-secret clearance — or any Defense Department employee — had repeatedly spoken by phone with leaders of arguably America’s principal foreign adversary, it would raise serious questions, at a minimum, several senators said.
“Typically our defense contractors, and that’s what Musk wants to be, do not deal with Russia in any way, shape or form — and the same rule should apply to him,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, in a May 14 interview. “The primary responsibility of the president is to protect the people of the United States. A large part of that is ensuring that adversaries don’t get information they should not have. So if you’re willing to ignore that to take care of a major donor, that’s absolutely wrong and unethical.”
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/05/16/democrats-renew-call-for-probe-of-musk-putin-ties/
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