Elon Musk may skirt more than $2 billion in possible financial liabilities by exercising his influence over the federal government, according to a report Monday from Senate Democratic committee staffers.
Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has brought sweeping changes to Washington with its slash-and-burn campaign to gut agencies and purge the federal workforce. President Donald Trump has avidly supported Musk’s cuts.
As he appears poised to step back from his DOGE work in the coming weeks, Democrats are accusing the world’s richest person of using his influence to “evade oversight, derail investigations, and make litigation disappear whenever he so chooses—on his terms and at his command.”
The report, compiled by Democratic staff of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, found that on the day of Trump’s inauguration, Musk and his companies were facing at least 65 “actual or potential” regulatory or enforcement actions from 11 federal agencies.
These actions totaled at least $2.37 billion in potential liability, the senators wrote.
The companies include SpaceX, a space exploration firm, Tesla, an electric vehicle manufacturer; Neuralink, which produces brain implants; The Boring Company, a tunnel construction firm; and the artificial intelligence startup xAI.
According to the 44-page memo, the potential liabilities included $1.19 billion at Tesla for allegedly making misleading statements about its autopilot and self-driving features.
Neuralink faced $281 million in possible liability for allegedly making false statements about risks from its product, per the memo.
Additionally, the company could have been forced to pay $1.59 million in civil and criminal penalties for alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
“The through line connecting many of Mr. Musk’s decisions appears to be self-enrichment and avoiding what he perceives as obstacles to advancing his interests,” reads the memo.
“The truth is that the breathtaking scope and scale of benefits Mr. Musk is gaining from his present position may never be known, and that is by design. The silence is strategic, and it is dangerous,” it says.
In the wake of the memo, the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, sent letters to the five Musk-led companies asking them to provide information on the federal investigations they faced prior to Trump’s inauguration.
CNBC has reached out to the companies for comment.
The letters also request a rundown of the steps each company has taken to keep Musk’s government work separate from those probes. Blumenthal asks the companies to respond by May 11.
The White House sharply rejected any suggestion that Musk has used his role in government for “personal or financial gain,” saying “any assertion otherwise is completely false and defamatory.”
Blumenthal “is clearly suffering from a debilitating and uncurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has wilted his brain,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in an emailed statement.