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Top senators are calling for a federal investigation into Musk’s alleged contact with Putin

Top senators are calling for a federal investigation into Musk’s alleged contact with Putin

Two top Senate Democrats have called for a federal investigation into Elon Musk’s reported contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides.

Lawmakers urged the Pentagon and Justice Department to determine whether Musk’s alleged dealings with a U.S. adversary while holding major government contracts endanger national security.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the world’s richest person has held “several high-level talks” with Putin since 2022, which the Kremlin has denied.

Musk wrote on his X platform on Friday that he is “going to find out who is making these accusations and quash them.”

In another post, he labeled the two Democrats — Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a senior Democrat on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees — as “puppets” and ‘knuckleheads’. “.

The members of Congress sent one letter on Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch asking “serious questions about Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and security clearance holder.”

The multi-billionaire claims to be in possession of top secret authority and his SpaceX company – one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) top contractors – is deeply entrenched in the federal government’s defense and intelligence infrastructure.

“Russia’s space ambitions pose a direct threat to U.S. national security,” the senators wrote, pointing to the Pentagon’s claims earlier this year that the U.S. adversary has deployed a counter-space weapon that could potentially be capable of destroying other satellites attack at low speed. orbit around the earth. Moscow has dismissed the claim as “fake news from Washington.”

Reed and Shaheen noted that Musk, unlike others with high-level security clearances, does not appear to report his contacts with foreign government officials.

They added that the billionaire’s communications with Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, stem from a Justice Ministry finding that Kiriyenko and other top officials were involved in an attempt to Kremlin propaganda on social mediaalso on the X platform (formerly Twitter), owned by Musk.

The Justice Department has said Russia’s covert influence operation aimed to “strengthen” its interests, in part by reducing international support for Ukraine and influencing voters in the U.S. presidential election.

“For these reasons, we are calling for an immediate investigation into whether Musk’s relationship with multiple high-level Russian officials warrants an investigation and a decision by the senior Department of Defense official on whether SpaceX has confirmed Musk’s involvement in the current or future US administration. contracts,” Reed and Shaheen wrote.

Musk, who backed Trump’s successful 2024 re-election bid with campaign appearances and millions of dollars in donations, was picked by the president-elect earlier this week to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

But he has also participated in the new president’s diplomatic efforts.

Musk joined Trump’s talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in the past week, as well as a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei at Trump’s Florida home.

The BBC’s American partner, CBS News, reported on Friday that Musk recently visited the residence of the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

It is not clear whether Trump or his national security team were aware of the meeting.

Washington does not maintain diplomatic relations with Tehran and Iran’s foreign minister denied the meeting to state media on Saturday.

“This was a fabricated story by the American media, and the motives behind this are also open to speculation,” Abbas Araqchi said.