NASA Director Bill Nelson on Friday called for an investigation into a report Wall Street Journal which claims that SpaceX founder and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact since late 2022.
The report, which says the SpaceX founder discussed personal matters, business and geopolitical tensions with the Russian leader, raises national security concerns, as SpaceX's relationships with NASA and the military may have allowed Musk to access confidential government information and US intelligence.
I don't know if this story is true. I think it should be investigated, Nelson told Semafor's Burgess Everett. If the story that there were several conversations between Elon Musk and the Russian president is true, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense and for some intelligence agencies.
Some U.S. officials raised counterintelligence concerns last year about Musk's interactions with U.S. adversaries such as Russia, but the U.S. intelligence community is cautious about investigating such interactions because Musk is a American citizen, an official familiar with the matter told CNN.
Several White House officials told the Journal they were unaware of the contacts between Musk and Putin, and the Journal said knowledge of the discussions appeared to be a closely guarded secret within the administration. The discussions were confirmed to the Journal by several current and former officials from the United States, Europe and Russia.
In one instance, the newspaper cited Putin's request that Musk not activate his Starlink satellite internet service in Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Musk did not respond to the Journal's requests for comment.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that he had seen the report but that the White House was unable to corroborate it and directed his questions to Musk. A Pentagon spokesperson told the Journal that the Department of Defense does not comment on an individual's security clearance, review or status, or on personnel security policy matters in the context of reporting on an individual's actions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added to the newspaper that Musk and Putin had only one phone call, during which they discussed space and current and future technologies.
Musk played a key role in the Ukraine conflict
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Musk's support for Ukraine – exemplified by SpaceX's provision of Starlink services – has declined as his public statements on the conflict have become more aligned with those of Trump, who said he would negotiate to quickly end the war. . Satellite internet terminals provided by Musk's company have been a vital source of communications for the Ukrainian military, allowing them to fight and stay connected even when cell phone networks and the internet were destroyed.
Russia and cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch told CNN's Alex Marquardt on CNN News Central on Friday that Musk's Starlink is essential for Ukraine in particular, because they really couldn't continue this war without your services.
After Musk trumpeted his initial support for Ukraine, SpaceX abruptly asked the Pentagon to pay tens of millions of dollars per month to fund Starlink in Ukraine and remove SpaceX's nux. In response to this report, Musk abruptly announced on social network X that he had withdrawn the funding request. At the same time, Musk used research on . After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned Musk's preference for war, the tech entrepreneur responded that he continued to strongly support Ukraine but feared a massive escalation.
SpaceX had previously limited its Starlink signal to areas controlled by Ukrainian forces, preventing potential advances that would have depended on that service's communications. SpaceX has expanded the signal to the rest of the country, and earlier this year Ukrainian intelligence said it had confirmed the use of Starlink satellite communications by Russian forces in occupied areas. Russia appeared to purchase the terminals from third parties; SpaceX said it does not do business with the Russian government or its armed forces and that its service will not operate in Russia. The statement does not address whether the service will operate in occupied Ukraine.
Ukraine's claim followed revelations in a Musk biography, written by Walter Isaacson, about the use of the satellite system in warfare. According to an excerpt from the book, Musk did not comply with a Ukrainian request to activate his company's Starlink satellite communications network near the coast of Crimea last year to stop a Ukrainian stealth attack on the Russian naval fleet.
Musk's decision, which prompted Ukrainian officials to beg him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by deep fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons, a fear reinforced by Musk's conversations with senior Russian officials. according to Isaacson.
In October 2022, Musk denied an allegation by American political scientist Ian Bremmer that he had spoken to Putin about the war and a proposed peace plan to end the conflict.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and owner of the X, has become a key financial figure in this year's presidential election. In October, he invested nearly $44 million (around €40 million) in a super PAC aimed at bringing Trump back to the White House – bringing the billionaire's total donations to the group to nearly $119 million ( more than 110 million) – and appeared with Trump on the campaign trail earlier this month in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Musk also held his own conferences last week in Pennsylvania, where he urged voters to support Trump and promoted several debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The two men publicly discussed Musk's potential role within the government.
In recent days, Musk also gave a $1 million daily giveaway to voters in a swing state, which caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. Despite a warning from the Justice Department that the payments might be illegal, Musk's super PAC on Thursday awarded two $1 million prizes to registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin.
CNN's Sean Lyngaas, Jackie Wattles and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this story
