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A scathing new report uncovered how Elon Musk may be avoiding more than $2 billion in financial liabilities given his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, according to Senate Democrats.
As DOGE slashed government contracts, reduced the federal government’s real estate footprint, and shrunk the federal workforce, Musk, as head of the cost-cutting arm, has used his position for “self-enrichment” and to dodge oversight, Democrats in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations wrote in a 44-page report released Monday.
Musk and his businesses faced $2.37 billion in potential liability as of January 2025, but he has since, through DOGE, removed key regulators and decision-makers in government entities that oversee or are leading investigations into his companies, the report says.
“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,” the Democrats said. His role “may allow him to evade oversight, derail investigations and make litigation disappear whenever he so chooses—on his terms and at his command.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
A White House spokesperson denied that Musk used his role for “personal or financial gain,” telling CNBC that “any assertion otherwise is completely false and defamatory.”
Trump chose the world’s richest person — and founder of Tesla, Neuralink, SpaceX, xAI and the Boring Company — to lead DOGE.
“President Trump could not have chosen a person more prone to conflicts of interest,” Democrats stated. “The nature of Mr. Musk’s businesses, as well as their substantial earnings from government contracts, mean that he is deeply entangled in the regulatory functions of the government he is now empowered to shape.”
The Democratic staff found that on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk and his companies were subject to “at least 65 actual or potential actions by 11 different federal agencies.” For 45 of them, he faced $2.37 billion in potential liability, they said.
This includes $1.59 million in civil and criminal penalties related to Neuralink’s “alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act while performing experiments on monkeys and pigs” and $1.19 billion in potential liability related to Tesla’s “allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features,” the report states.
For the other 25, the subcommittee was not able to estimate liability, the Democrats said.
“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,” the report says.
The report comes after Musk recently said he plans to step back from his role at DOGE. “Starting next month, I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla,” he said last week.
The damning findings also arrive days after a new poll found that his popularity is falling. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 35 percent of Americans approve of the way the tech billionaire is handling his job, compared to 57 percent who disapprove.
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, ranking Democratic member on the subcommittee, also sent letters Musk’s companies and asked them to provide information by May 11.
White House communications director Steven Cheung blasted Blumenthal as “clearly suffering from a debilitating and [incurable] case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has wilted his brain,” in a statement to CNBC.
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