Congress
Elon Musk is in Democrats’ oversight crosshairs
Democrats are eyeing many targets as they make plans to probe corruption in and around President Donald Trump’s administration should they win control of the House next month.
Few loom larger than Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man and nine-figure Republican donor has emerged as a man of intense interest to several potential committee chairs — not to mention scores of rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers — who see multiple fronts for investigations.
Those include Musk’s whirlwind stint as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, his companies’ multibillion dollar contracts with the federal government and — most recently — his possible role in throttling crucial internet access to the Ukrainian military as the White House seeks to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into cutting a peace deal with Russia.
“What happens when one guy gets a giant contract from the government and then uses it to do something that shuts down communication in a war that has been extremely important to the United States to support Ukraine?” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview. “There’s a lot of different parts of the corruption around Musk.”
Multiple committees are now gaming out how they will take on Musk next term if Democrats win back gavels, with senior members and aides considering how he fits into the various panels’ jurisdiction. Any number of committees in both chambers could stake a claim to probing a piece of Musk’s dealings with the federal government.
“We definitely have a lot of questions about Elon Musk’s role in DOGE and it is something we plan to investigate,” said Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for top Oversight Committee Democrat Rep. Robert Garcia of California.
Spokespeople for Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Some members are not waiting for election results to get started. Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee demanded last month that Musk testify under oath about a Government Accountability Office report claiming that DOGE overstated its savings, while the House Ways and Means Committee has already called to investigate alleged DOGE-related data theft from Social Security.
Huge parts of Musk’s dealings with the federal government could come under congressional scrutiny, including the billions of dollars in spaceflight contracts SpaceX holds with NASA as well as the clean-energy subsidies Tesla has reaped.
But leading Democrats of multiple committees remain fixed on Musk’s five-month rampage through the federal bureaucracy as DOGE leader, in which an estimated 250,000 federal jobs were cut amid allegations of data breaches and illegally withheld congressional spending.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the Space, Science and Technology Committee, which oversees NASA, said her panel has more “to learn about the damage that DOGE inflicted on our science agencies.”
“Elon Musk and his DOGE cronies stirred up chaos, ruined careers, and played a large role in illegal grant cancellations and firings of civil servants,” she said in a Monday statement.
“He helped orchestrate the systematic destruction of government programs and services over the last nearly two years,” Lofgren added. “The sheer number of conflicts of interest are astounding.”
Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the top Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat, said much the same — calling in a Monday statement for “a full accounting of the damage Mr. Musk and DOGE caused.”
“The cruel dismantling of USAID, championed by Elon Musk and carried out by Secretary Rubio, saved no taxpayer money, balanced no budget, and made America no safer,” Meeks said, adding that the panel “will not let anyone obstruct our oversight.”
The House Oversight Committee, considered to have the most robust investigative staff of any congressional panel, could also get involved in probing Musk’s dealings.
“I think DOGE was the original sin,” said one Democratic member of the panel granted anonymity to describe internal discussions about its agenda. “A third of the committee is lawyers and we see the lawlessness, the intentional violations of the law.”
“I certainly hope that Elon Musk and DOGE get brought in,” the member added. “No one should be above the law.”
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has not named Musk as a preeminent target as tries to keep the Democratic midterm message trained on affordability, but he has spoken out about the need to crack down on the “wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected.”
Garcia also spoke at length in an August interview about targeting corruption within Trump’s inner circle, and others have emphasized the need to take a broad view of potential oversight subjects. Many top Democrats, for instance, want an early focus on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“I don’t think that there is a single like, ‘You are the one,’” Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), a member of the Science panel, said in an interview. “I think it is across the board — we need answers.”
But plenty of rank-and-file Democrats want Musk personally held to account — including some on panels with less obvious ties to the tech mogul.
Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), for instance, sits on the Natural Resources and Veterans Affairs Committees. She said she sees Musk among “the well-connected billionaire, trillionaires who have seen government contracts as a way to subsidize their own company’s research, development, and bottom line.”
“We need to shut that down,” she added.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), a Foreign Affairs member, was succinct in describing the need to probe Musk’s dealings and haul him before that committee: “Bring it all on.”
Musk has made no secret of his preference for House control next term as the GOP’s single biggest known midterm donor, with $276 million and counting going to Republican committees and candidates.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), an Oversight Committee member and the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said delving into the allegedly transactional nature of Musk’s influence is the whole point.
“Our committees need to be doing oversight both into the Trump administration, but I think even more importantly or equally importantly, into the corporations and ultrarich people who have tried to corrupt our government,” he said. “And, of course, Elon Musk is on that list because it takes two to tango.”
Kelsey Brugger and Ari Hawkins contributed to this report.