Senators Demand Probe into Musk’s Russia Phone Calls
This isn’t the first time Musk’s actions have raised concerns about SpaceX's alignment with U.S. interests.
Jericho Casper
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2024 – Two U.S. Senators called for an urgent investigation into Starlink CEO Elon Musk’s connections with Russian officials on Friday, citing serious national security concerns.
The senators, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., urged Attorney General Merrick Garland and a Defense Department official to assess whether Musk’s reported interactions with Russian officials could jeopardize his security clearance and SpaceX’s role as a government contractor.
“On October 25, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had multiple, high level conversations with Russian President Vladmir Putin as early as 2022, and sustained contact with high-level Russian officials, including Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko,” the senators wrote in their letter.
“At the same time, Musk asserts that he holds a Top Secret level security clearance. These relationships between a well-known U.S. adversary and Musk, a beneficiary of billions of dollars in U.S. government funding, pose serious questions regarding Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder,” the letter stated.
Musk responded to the WSJ's allegations on X, his social media platform, dismissing them without providing a direct denial. In his post, Musk used two laughing emojis in reaction to a tweet that mocked the story, saying, “Welp, the Swamp’s ‘Trump is Hitler’ didn’t work. Might as well give ‘Elon is a Russian agent’ a whirl.”
The stakes are high for Musk, whose entrepreneurial ventures have been deeply intertwined with U.S. government programs.
Musk is a prime contractor on the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program, is building a government-exclusive Starshield satellite network for the Space Force, and holds a $1.8 billion dollar classified contract with the National Reconnaissance Agency.
While Starlink itself is primarily a commercial service, Starshield, a government-exclusive extension of Starlink, provides secure communication for U.S. military operations, making vulnerabilities in its management a potential direct threat to national security.
The letter also raised alarms about Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), and its role in disseminating Russian propaganda. The Justice Department recently seized 32 domains linked to Russian government disinformation campaigns orchestrated by officials, including Kiriyenko. These campaigns aimed to influence public opinion on the Ukraine war and the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the senators said.
This is not the first time Musk’s actions have come under scrutiny of meddling in international affairs. In April, the Federal Communications Commission was urged to review SpaceX’s federal spectrum licenses, citing Musk’s alleged use of low-Earth orbit satellites to interfere in U.S. foreign policy.
At that time, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America highlighted reports of Musk refusing to activate Starlink in Crimea to aid Ukrainian forces and accused him of enabling Russian military access to the satellite system. UCCA questioned whether Musk’s behavior aligned with the public interest requirements for FCC license holders.
