“Lawyer Up”: Elon Musk’s DOGE Bill Comes Due

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0:36Right. Okay, we can afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required,$15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes Today on Forbes, Lawyer Up. Elon Musk's Doge bill comes due. Elon Musk's brief stint as the chainsaw-waving face of the Trump administration's Doge initiative did little to curb federal spending. It did help push more than 300 ,000 federal workers out of government through firings, voluntary resignations, and early retirements last year.

1:23It also sparked anti-Tesla protests in the US and Europe, some of which ended with cars ablaze. At best, Doge was, quote, a little successful, according to a sighing Musk. He said that last December in a podcast interview with Katie Miller, the wife of White House advisor Stephen Miller, who'd briefly worked with both Doge and for Musk. But Musk acknowledged that if he had the chance to do it again, he wouldn't. He said, quote, I think instead of doing Doge, I would have basically worked on my companies, and then they wouldn't have been burning the cars. A few torch Teslas and the damage his Trump partnership did to his EV company's brand may be the least of his problems when a new Democratic-controlled Congress takes power in January.

2:12Some legal experts believe activities by Musk and Doge, broke federal rules on at least three fronts. First, eliminating programs without congressional consent. Second, ignoring federal transparency laws. And third, accessing personal and financial data without authorization. And the expectation is he and a cadre of 20-something Dogebros, including Edward Corstein, known as Big Balls, will be called to explain what happened in the first three months of the Trump administration. Representative Robert Garcia, in line to become chairman of the House Oversight Committee, just one of the congressional committees that's likely to look into Musk and Doge, made it clear this week that a raft of investigations, including into the Trump family's financial activities and the Epstein files, are planned.

3:04Without referencing Doge, Garcia on Wednesday posted, quote, Last year, Garcia was among the main congressional critics of Musk and Doge, though his staff didn't reply to multiple emails seeking comment on his plans for hearings on that topic. In addition to oversight, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee may also want to review Doge, as it oversees government affairs, the civil service, and federal employee protections. In a post-election statement also on Wednesday, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, in line to be the next speaker, said, quote, Congress will assume its place as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch.

3:48Musk seems to be aware of what's coming. In a post on X last month, he said, quote, Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets. That may also help explain why he donated at least $458 million to help Republicans keep control of Congress during the midterm elections. He ultimately, financially speaking, became the biggest loser on election night. Much of the criticism of Doge, aside from mass firings of federal employees, was the rapid destruction of USAID, a program that for six decades provided food and medicine for people in the poorest parts of the world.

4:32Studies by The Lancet and researchers with UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health project, estimate that massive cuts to USAID may result in up to 19 million preventable deaths globally by 2030, including 4.5 million children under five. And at agencies such as NOAA, doge cuts to staff and its budget have created ongoing headaches for America's fishing fleets, farmers, and insurers who depend on its data. Then there is the question of what Musk saw. Because he's a federal contractor supplying rocket launch and satellite communications services to the Defense Department and NASA with SpaceX, his access to sensitive information during his Doge days is of particular interest.

5:18This according to Virginia Cantor, chief counsel for the Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonpartisan legal advocacy group. She previously served as an associate counsel in the Obama and Clinton administrations and as ethics advisor for the International Monetary Fund. Last month, a federal judge in New York ruled the Office of Personnel Management violated the Privacy Act when it gave the Doge team access to personal information from millions of current and former federal employees. Democracy Defenders was among the groups involved in the suit brought by former government workers. Cantor said, Doge gave Musk unprecedented access to what appears to be some of the most protected information.

6:01What information did he have access to? What systems did he have access to? What did he do with that information? The questions Congress should ask, she said, go past access to use. What rights Musk was granted over the data? What restrictions were placed on him? And whether any of it found its way into his own company's systems? For full coverage, check out Alan Owensman's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

6:52an enormously expensive holiday song like all I want right okay we can't afford that you don't forget the music budget we're gonna stick with whatever's in the public domain give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch upfront payment of 45 for three months 90 for six months or 180 for 12-month plan required 15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms