Blumenthal Hits Back at Musk Companies for Failing to Manage DOGE Leader's Glaring Conflicts of Interest

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), today demanded answers from the six companies owned and controlled by Elon Musk—Tesla, SpaceX (owner of Starlink), X, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink—after the companies failed to answer basic questions about Mr. Musk’s glaring conflicts of interest as he simultaneously rakes in billions in the private sector and heads up activities at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

On February 5, Blumenthal wrote to the six companies, urging them to preserve all records related to government activities following actions Mr. Musk had taken to exploit his White House position for financial gain, endanger Americans’ sensitive information, and consolidate power. After refusing to commit to preserving these records and failing to satisfactorily answer PSI’s questions, Blumenthal is reiterating his request for information in light of recent public reporting that suggests Mr. Musk is using DOGE to target agencies responsible for investigating his questionable business practices.

“Your February 14 letter is blatantly, brazenly unresponsive and inadequate. Tesla has purposefully failed to answer the Subcommittee’s questions, magnifying concerns that Mr. Musk and his companies are intentionally indifferent to his growing power over federal agencies that regulate or contract with these companies. Tesla’s refusal to simply confirm that it will preserve all records pertaining to DOGE and related government activities indicates that Mr. Musk’s commitment to being ‘maximally transparent’ is toothless and fails to assuage mounting unease that the companies he owns or controls will likely benefit immensely from his new role,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Tesla General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Brandon Ehrhart.

Blumenthal continued, “The information sought in the Subcommittee’s letter is essential to providing the transparency to which the American people are entitled and which Mr. Musk promised in a press conference just last week.  Merely asserting that Tesla has a ‘robust compliance infrastructure,’ and that the company is ‘work[ing] actively to meet our compliance obligations and to address conflicts of interest’ fails to live up to Mr. Musk’s promise or to address concerns about Tesla’s potential liability.”

“In the spirit of Mr. Musk’s stated goal of ‘trying to be as transparent as possible,’ I reiterate my request that you answer the Subcommittee’s questions regarding how your company is managing Mr. Musk’s host of conflicts and those of other company personnel. The Subcommittee’s concerns about these issues have only grown due to recent public reporting identifying former Tesla employees linked to DOGE,” Blumenthal concluded.

The full text of Blumenthal’s letter to Tesla is available here and below. Similar letters were sent to SpaceX, X, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. Blumenthal’s February 5 letters to Tesla, SpaceX, X, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink are available here.

Dear Mr. Ehrhart:

On February 5, 2025, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (“PSI” or “the Subcommittee”) wrote to you as part of an inquiry into potential conflicts of interest raised by the participation of Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). As the Subcommittee’s letter detailed, Mr. Musk’s dual roles at Tesla and DOGE could enable Tesla to both gain significant advantages over its competitors and improperly influence government agencies that regulate and oversee Tesla.[1] Your February 14 letter is blatantly, brazenly unresponsive and inadequate. Tesla has purposefully failed to answer the Subcommittee’s questions, magnifying concerns that Mr. Musk and his companies are intentionally indifferent to his growing power over federal agencies that regulate or contract with these companies. Tesla’s refusal to simply confirm that it will preserve all records pertaining to DOGE and related government activities indicates that Mr. Musk’s commitment to being “maximally transparent” is toothless and fails to assuage mounting unease that the companies he owns or controls will likely benefit immensely from his new role.[2]

Recent public reporting suggests that Mr. Musk has already begun using DOGE to target agencies responsible for investigating his questionable business practices.[3] The information sought in the Subcommittee’s letter is essential to providing the transparency to which the American people are entitled and which Mr. Musk promised in a press conference on February 11.[4] Merely asserting that Tesla has a “robust compliance infrastructure,” and that the company is “work[ing] actively to meet our compliance obligations and to address conflicts of interest” fails to live up to Mr. Musk’s promise or to address concerns about Tesla’s potential liability.

Your letter, like the other responses PSI received from Mr. Musk’s intertwined business interests, largely recycles boilerplate material about your company’s purported accomplishments without addressing any of the Subcommittee’s concerns. Indeed, the letters to PSI from Mr. Musk’s businesses are so similar that they could all have come from the same source.[5]  Additionally, Tesla’s suggestion that its operations are separate and apart from the activities of DOGE is irreconcilable with Mr. Musk’s actions and statements to your shareholders. On January 29, for example, during Tesla’s Fourth Quarter 2024 earnings conference call, Mr. Musk lamented that “the U.S. government won’t let us do training in China;” later in the same call, after being asked by an analyst about “your work with the administration,” Mr. Musk indicated that Tesla was “making sure that we can continue to manufacture our stuff even in the event of geopolitical tensions rising to the very highest levels.”[6] In other words, Tesla’s business is inextricably bound up with the very work that Mr. Musk is now conducting at DOGE. In fact, since the November 2024 presidential election, Tesla’s valuation has increased by nearly $400 billion.[7]

Please contact the Subcommittee should you have any questions about responding to these requests. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

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