Senators Are Pushing for Probe Into Elon Musk’s Alleged Contacts With Russia

Elon Musk is the new boogieman of the Left.

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed are calling for an investigation into conversations that Tesla founder Elon Musk allegedly had with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They are specifically calling for the Departments of Justice and Defense to find out if there is a national security risk with regards to the contracts his company SpaceX has with the Defense Department and the intelligence community. 

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal in October, Musk has turned into a confidant to President-Elect Donald Trump, who has routinely held talks with Putin and other Russian government officials about sensitive geopolitical matters. 

On November 15, Shaheen and Reed called on the Biden regime to investigate if the discussions represented a security risk in two letters sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, Robert Storch. Another letter was sent to  Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. 

“These relationships between a well-known U.S. adversary and Mr. Musk, a beneficiary of billions of dollars in U.S. government funding, pose serious questions regarding Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder,” the senators said to Garland and Storch in a letter. 

On top of that, the senators described Musk’s contact with Putin’s first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko as “deeply concerning.” Kiriyenko has been accused by Justice Department prosecutors of using X and other social media platforms to “covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of … influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election,” per a Justice Department statement. 

Further, the senators pushed for an immediate investigation to determine whether SpaceX, which is the principal rocket launcher for the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), should potentially be banned from engaging in government business. 

In an additional letter to Kendall, the two senators wrote that “Mr. Musk’s reported behavior could pose serious risks to national security” and advocated for a “reconsideration” of SpaceX’s “outsized role” in the US’s military’s space program. 

Shaheen is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and Reed is chairman of the Armed Services Committee. 

Musk spent $200 million to re-elect Trump. For his monetary investment into Trump’s campaign, Musk has been rewarded with a key role in Trump’s transition team and is also the co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 

The media is definitely going after Musk, given his vast wealth and the role he played in re-electing Trump. Say what you want about Musk, his efforts to allay tensions between the US and Russia are laudable. 

Foreign policy decisionmakers in the US have proven to be fanatic and shrill with respect to Russia. Their obsession with neoconservative and neoliberal precepts prevents them from pursuing sober foreign policy moves such as realism and restraint.

At this point, outsiders like Musk are needed to ensure that peace becomes the norm on the world stage. Our present ruling class has failed colossally.