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| Elon Musk and SpaceX (Getty) |
Less than 24 hours after revelations that U.S. billionaire Elon Musk had essentially bought the U.S. presidency by plowing more than $270 million into getting Donald Trump elected -- and those included reports about a number of dubious actions on Musk's part -- we have new revelations, from reporting at The New York Times (NYT) that point to more questionable activities by Musk and one of his companies.
Under the headline "Musk and SpaceX Face Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules; Federal agencies have opened at least three reviews into whether the company and its leader complied with disclosure protocols intended to protect state secrets, people with knowledge of the matter said.," Times reporters Kirsten Grind, Sheera Frenkel, and Eric Lipton write:
Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents.
Concerns about the reporting practices — and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX’s chief executive — have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts said. The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General opened a review into the matter this year, and the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security separately initiated reviews last month.
The Air Force recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have expressed concerns that he could share sensitive data with others, according to defense officials.
Internally, SpaceX has a team that is expected to ensure compliance with the government’s national-security rules. Some of those employees have complained to the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General and other agencies about the lax reporting, which goes back to at least 2021, four people with knowledge of the company said. SpaceX was awarded at least $10 billion in federal contracts with the Pentagon and NASA from 2019 to 2023, making it a major contractor.
Mr. Musk is facing scrutiny as he wields increasing power around the world through his myriad businesses — particularly SpaceX but also the social media company X and the electric carmaker Tesla. While the 53-year-old has long blown past norms and conventions that do not suit him or his companies, the stakes are arguably higher when it comes to national-security matters.
As the world's richest man, Musk clearly is not a dummy. But one would think that as his power and profile have grown on a global scale -- to the point that he almost single-handedly chose the current president-elect of the United States -- he would be prepared for more scrutiny to come with such perks. That, however, does not appear to have happened. Is a tendency to blow "past norms and conventions" a sign of the arrogance and entitlement that come with great wealth? The answer appears to be yes. With many Americans, especially non-Republicans, highly displeased and distressed by Musk's choice of a man who is widely seen as unfit to be president, the pressure likely will build for him to be held accountable, especially by courts, members of the legal profession, and Defense Department watchdogs. Write The Times reporters:
For years, SpaceX workers responsible for upholding disclosure rules grudgingly allowed Mr. Musk to disregard many of the reporting procedures, as they did not want to lose their jobs, the people with knowledge of the company said. But the issue has reached a tipping point as Mr. Musk’s influence is set to escalate. An ardent supporter of President-elect Donald J. Trump, he was named last month to help lead an effort to winnow the federal bureaucracy and has joined calls that Mr. Trump has held with foreign leaders.
Some SpaceX workers have become concerned about Mr. Musk’s ability to handle sensitive information, especially as he posts openly on X about everything from video games to diplomatic meetings, the people said. The fears have been compounded because Mr. Musk has a top-secret security clearance at SpaceX, which makes him privy to classified material such as advanced U.S. military technology.
Like Trump, Musk seems to have a problem with loose lips. And that can be an unnerving trait in the world of national security, defense contracts, strategic alliances, and international intelligence/surveillance. Musk's free-wheeling style might have won him admirers in the business world, but it could make him a liability in the political world. Keeping up with security reporting is part of that world. From The Times reporting team:
Under security-clearance rules, Mr. Musk must report information about his private life and foreign travel, among other details, to the Defense Department as part of a process known as “continuous vetting.” That allows the government to evaluate whether someone with a high-level security clearance should continue handling sensitive information.
But since at least 2021, Mr. Musk and SpaceX have not adhered to those reporting requirements, the people with knowledge of SpaceX said. He and his team have not provided some details of his travel — such as his full itineraries — and some of his meetings with foreign leaders, they said. He has also not reported his use of drugs, which is required even with a prescription, they said. A Wall Street Journal report has tied Musk to the use of LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and katamine. Musk has denied smoking pot, even though he smoked a joint on a video, widely available on the Web, during an apperance on the Joe Rogan podcast. This is from a report at Forbes about Musk's drug habit (dated 9/12/18, written by contributor Ben Curren):
Last week, when Elon Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, he broke the internet when he took a single puff of cannabis at the two-hour-and-ten minute mark. In just under 15 seconds of a podcast that topped two-and-a-half hours, he seemingly did enough damage to cause Tesla’s stock to plummet nine percent, where it remained for the rest of the day.
Today, Tesla’s stock price has rebounded and is back to normal. But the fifteen seconds in which Musk accepted Rogan’s joint, studied it quizzically, took a single tentative puff, shrugged it off, and handed it back spawned a slew of headlines that persisted through the weekend.
“DealBook Briefing: Elon Musk Smoked Weed on Air,” crowed The New York Times.
“Analysis: Elon Musk is hurting Tesla with his bizarre behavior,” wrote CNN Money.
“Elon Musk seen smoking weed on podcast,” said CNBC.
While cannabis use has come more into the mainstream and become more normalized than ever before, the daylong selloff and the headlines that came from Musk’s appearance suggest that cannabis still has a long way to go before it can overcome the stigmas that have persisted around it for decades.
Never mind that cannabis – for both medical and recreational use – is legal in California, where the interview was taped. Never mind that Musk said he never smoked, or that he demonstrated the ability to continue holding a rational and thoughtful conversation until the interview’s conclusion. And never mind that he and Rogan were drinking whiskey the entire time without incident or note. That 15-second clip has been played on loop as evidence that Musk has lost credibility or, in the more extreme portrayals, has become unhinged.
I write this not to attack Elon Musk nor to be overly supportive of his behavior. To be sure, while it may seem unfair, a public company CEO has a duty to act at the highest levels of professionalism. As a CEO myself, I understand all too well the expectations that are required in public settings. But it seems wildly problematic, especially in 2018 with legalization on the rise across the country, that someone can be stereotyped as unhinged for consuming a small amount of cannabis.
As it stands now, Musk has raised a lot of questions without providing clear answers. That might not be appreciated by officials for the political space in which Musk now operates. The Times reports that some who are used to the requirements of that political space are alarmed about Musk's cavalier approach to providing important information:
It is unclear why Mr. Musk did not report some of this information to the government, especially since he sometimes posts on X about matters that he does not relay to the Defense Department. It is also unclear if Mr. Musk instructed SpaceX to not report the information. No federal agency has accused him of disclosing classified material.
Still, “to have someone who has major contracts with the government who would be in a position to pass along — whether deliberately or inadvertently — secrets is concerning,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire and a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations.
Last month, Ms. Shaheen asked the Air Force and the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate whether Mr. Musk was having inappropriate communications with foreign leaders, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security initiated their reviews in response to questions from Ms. Shaheen and another lawmaker. On Friday, a day after The New York Times asked the secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, about the matter, he responded to Ms. Shaheen, saying federal privacy laws prohibited him from discussing Mr. Musk’s case.
“The Department of the Air Force takes security matters very seriously, and I share your concerns,” he said.
Whether the federal reviews will affect Mr. Musk or SpaceX is unclear. Some of the SpaceX employees who complained about the privately held company’s reporting practices have been fired or forced out, the people with knowledge of the rocket maker said. Two defense officials said senior Pentagon leaders had given directives to avoid discussing the matter so they would not become targets of Mr. Musk, who has promised to cut government workers and budgets in his new role in Washington.
As a matter of constitutional law, Mr. Trump could grant a security clearance to anyone after his inauguration, even if others in the government object.
Mr. Musk, a lawyer for Mr. Musk, and SpaceX did not return requests for comment. In a post on X after this article was published, Mr. Musk said, “Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media.” He added, “I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them …”
Could that be taken as a threat by some of Musk's new colleagues and superiors? Yes. Was it smart to say that, under the circumstances? No. Will that comfort anyone who might be concerned about Musk's loose lips? Definitely not. Word of The Times' reporting seems to be getting around:
A Defense Department spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for the department’s Office of Inspector General, which is a quasi-independent watchdog arm, said the office could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of an ongoing investigation.”
Mr. Kendall declined to comment on Mr. Musk, but said the Pentagon was serious about security clearance rules. “We depend upon enforceable and executable contracts, and we enforce them,” he said in an interview at the Pentagon.
Top Secret
Mr. Musk’s security clearance has been fraught for years, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Until about 2018, he held a mid-level secret clearance at SpaceX, they said. That year, the company applied for a higher level of clearance known as “top secret” on his behalf.
Many SpaceX employees hold some level of security clearance since the company is a defense contractor that puts NASA astronauts into orbit and provides its Starlink satellite internet service to the military. It is also helping the federal government build a new constellation of spy satellites.
Security clearances are critical for the government to protect intelligence and state secrets. Officials examine an applicant’s financial background and personal relationships, interview the applicant’s friends and family and collect documents outlining the person’s history.
The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which is in charge of vetting individuals seeking access to classified information, took more than two years — an atypical length that was more than double the average time — to approve Mr. Musk’s top-secret security clearance, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Top secret is the highest clearance through the security agency, but some government departments offer separate levels of access to classified materials that can be higher.
During that period, Mr. Musk was filmed on Joe Rogan’s podcast smoking pot, which remains illegal at the federal level and is prohibited under security clearance rules. His business interests in China, where Tesla has a factory, were also a concern, the people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Musk ultimately received the clearance.
A spokesman for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency said he could not address any questions related to Mr. Musk.
Those holding a security clearance must self-report certain details of their lives during the continuous vetting process. The Air Force, as part of its contracts with SpaceX that include classified work, pays the company to hire a special staff to ensure these requirements are honored.
SpaceX’s team that reports such information for its employees, including Mr. Musk, was until recently overseen by Terrence O’Shaughnessy, a retired four-star Air Force general and a top lieutenant to the billionaire, four people with knowledge of the team said. Mr. Musk has recommended General O’Shaughnessy for a position in the new Trump administration.
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