Laura Barron-Lopez:
So Musk has two options, essentially, according to Richard Painter and other lawyers I spoke to. He can sell off, as Painter said, his interests, his holdings, his businesses, or he can recuse himself from government matters that could affect his businesses.
And so that means potentially anything involving cryptocurrency, electric vehicles, SpaceX, or the social media company X. Now, today, President Trump said that Musk is tasked with shrinking the government and that, if there’s a conflict or a problem, that he will make sure that Musk and DOGE don’t go near it.
But there’s a pattern here, Amna, that suggests that there’s little to no guardrails around Elon Musk and DOGE, and that’s what we’re hearing from a number of sources across the federal government.
And Musk could ultimately be vulnerable to lawsuits even five years from now, according to the lawyers we spoke to.
