Eric Lipton

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for having me.

What we did was we sort of examined the breadth of Elon Musk operations across the federal government. And there are, you know, there are so many pending investigations, lawsuits, inquiries. And we looked at how many of them had been disrupted. And we were quite surprised at how many cases we saw where You know, we don't know.

What we did was we sort of examined the breadth of Elon Musk operations across the federal government. And there are, you know, there are so many pending investigations, lawsuits, inquiries. And we looked at how many of them had been disrupted. And we were quite surprised at how many cases we saw where You know, we don't know.

We never saw any evidence of Musk explicitly reaching in and, you know, using his cloud or powers to stop any particular investigation. But what we saw was that it again and again. Agencies that are targeting his companies have now had significant disruptions. The inspector generals, the quorums are gone. They can't, therefore, process any potential new lawsuits or settlements.

We never saw any evidence of Musk explicitly reaching in and, you know, using his cloud or powers to stop any particular investigation. But what we saw was that it again and again. Agencies that are targeting his companies have now had significant disruptions. The inspector generals, the quorums are gone. They can't, therefore, process any potential new lawsuits or settlements.

And, you know, it just shows you how never before have we had a situation where someone has basically $13 billion worth of federal contracts over the last five years, $3.8 billion just in 2024, and at the same time has dozens of ongoing investigations, that that same person would be given such incredible clout over the federal government. And that is a conflict of interest.

And, you know, it just shows you how never before have we had a situation where someone has basically $13 billion worth of federal contracts over the last five years, $3.8 billion just in 2024, and at the same time has dozens of ongoing investigations, that that same person would be given such incredible clout over the federal government. And that is a conflict of interest.

And now we're seeing the implications of that, where there are more than dozens of investigations that have been potentially disrupted because of the broad disruption that's happening in the federal government. And that's something that we really felt we needed to drill down on and understand and identify as many cases as possible where these disruptions have occurred.

And now we're seeing the implications of that, where there are more than dozens of investigations that have been potentially disrupted because of the broad disruption that's happening in the federal government. And that's something that we really felt we needed to drill down on and understand and identify as many cases as possible where these disruptions have occurred.

And that's what we published in today's paper.

And that's what we published in today's paper.

I've been a reporter for three decades, more than three decades. I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen such a blatant conflict of interest. He is one of the largest contractors for the federal government. Again, $15 billion in contracts just in the last decade.

I've been a reporter for three decades, more than three decades. I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen such a blatant conflict of interest. He is one of the largest contractors for the federal government. Again, $15 billion in contracts just in the last decade.

And the notion that an individual who could be running or founding or operating so many companies that have so many contracts with the federal government, and at the same time, deciding what the budgets of the federal agency should be or what regulatory powers they should have, and even what investigative and enforcement powers they should have,

And the notion that an individual who could be running or founding or operating so many companies that have so many contracts with the federal government, and at the same time, deciding what the budgets of the federal agency should be or what regulatory powers they should have, and even what investigative and enforcement powers they should have,

And I mean, the thing is that even before the election, Musk was very clear that he had intense frustration with the Federal Aviation Administration, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He wanted the FAA administrator fired. He called the SEC political. And, you know, he was very pointed in the Department of Interior.