Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules
The New York Times
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.
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 also recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have also 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.
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.
