By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk took his marketing campaign to chop the U.S. federal authorities into uncharted waters on Friday, holding an unprecedented top-level assembly on the Pentagon and calling for the prosecution of any Protection Division officers leaking “maliciously false info” about his go to.
Musk, whose companies have plenty of Protection Division contracts, met U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth for 80 minutes in his first such talks on the Pentagon, which is chargeable for a big chunk of federal authorities spending. It was unclear whether or not U.S. generals joined that assembly nearly.
The New York Occasions reported that Musk can be briefed on secret battle plans for China, one thing Musk, President Donald Trump and others denied. Musk known as the report “pure propaganda” and urged authorized motion towards leakers.
“I stay up for the prosecutions of these on the Pentagon who’re leaking maliciously false info to NYT. They are going to be discovered,” he wrote on X earlier than the Hegseth assembly.
A New York Occasions spokesperson mentioned leak investigations are “meant to relax communications between journalists and their sources and undermine the flexibility of a free press to deliver out very important info which will in any other case be hidden.”
Hegseth’s chief of employees, in a memo launched late on Friday, known as for an investigation into “unauthorized disclosures of nationwide safety info,” to incorporate the potential use of a polygraph checks.
On the White Home after the assembly, Trump mentioned he didn’t wish to present the US’ plans for a possible battle with China to anyone and hinted at Musk’s potential battle of curiosity.
“I do not wish to present that to anyone. However definitely you would not present it to a businessman, who helps us a lot,” Trump mentioned. “Elon has companies in China, and he can be prone, maybe, to that,” Trump mentioned.
Standing subsequent to Trump, Hegseth mentioned he had a casual dialog with Musk that targeted on innovation and efficiencies.
“There was no battle plans, no Chinese language battle plans. There was no secret plans,” Hegseth mentioned.
Following controversy over the New York Occasions story, a deliberate assembly between Musk and members of the Joint Chiefs of Employees in a safe assembly room within the Pentagon, referred to as “The Tank,” finally didn’t happen.
Entry to a intently guarded army plan would mark a pointy enlargement of Musk’s function because the Trump adviser who’s spearheading efforts to chop U.S. authorities spending.
It will additionally gas questions on conflicts of curiosity for Musk, who as the pinnacle of Tesla and SpaceX additionally has enterprise pursuits in China.
“There isn’t any professional nationwide safety or different rationale for offering this info to Mr. Musk,” two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth, wrote in a letter to Hegseth, demanding particulars on what info was shared with Musk and why.
The White Home has beforehand mentioned Musk will recuse himself if any conflicts of curiosity come up between his enterprise dealings and his function in slicing federal authorities spending.
Musk’s companies Starlink and SpaceX have already got plenty of Pentagon contracts, elevating questions on conflicts of curiosity as he advocates for innovation and re-prioritization of Pentagon spending to seek out efficiencies.
The alternatives for his corporations, SpaceX particularly, underneath Trump may drive billions of {dollars} of income to his corporations. Trump’s deliberate Golden Dome missile protection protect, which might require tons of of sensors and different satellites to maintain look ahead to incoming ballistic missiles, can be a pure match for SpaceX and its Starlink unit.
Musk arrived in a motorcade on the Pentagon on Friday morning and shortly moved upstairs to fulfill Hegseth. As he departed, Musk was seen joking with the protection secretary, and mentioned the assembly went nicely.
“If there’s something I can do to be useful, I would love us to have a very good consequence right here,” Musk mentioned as he departed.
Final week, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard mentioned she had ordered an investigation into leaks from contained in the intelligence neighborhood and can be probing inner chat rooms for any misconduct by workers.
Throughout Trump’s first time period, his administration referred extra media leaks for legal investigation every year than in any of the earlier 15 years, in accordance with information launched in 2021 by the Justice Division to the impartial watchdog group, Venture on Authorities Oversight, in response to a Freedom of Info Act lawsuit.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Nandita Bose and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Extra reporting by Kanishka Singh; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Daniel Wallis, Alistair Bell, Diane Craft and Tom Hogue)
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