CNN —
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Friday that SpaceX founder and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in “regular contact” since late 2022. called for an investigation into the Wall Street Journal’s reporting.
The report says the SpaceX founder discussed “personal topics, business, and geopolitical tensions” with the Russian leader, and SpaceX’s relationships with NASA and the U.S. military have led Musk to disclose government secrets. It raises national security concerns because it may have allowed access to information and U.S. intelligence agencies.
“I don’t know if that story is true or not. I think it should be investigated,” Nelson told Semaphore’s Burgess Everett. “If the story of multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the Russian president is true, I think it would be especially alarming for NASA, the Department of Defense, and some intelligence agencies.”
Some U.S. officials last year raised counterintelligence concerns about Musk’s interactions with America’s adversaries, including Russia, but because Musk is a U.S. citizen, U.S. intelligence agencies are less likely to investigate those interactions. is cautious, an official familiar with the matter told CNN.
Multiple White House officials told the Journal that they had no knowledge of Musk’s contact with Putin, and the paper said knowledge of the meeting “appears to be a top secret of the government.” This argument was confirmed to Barron’s by several current and former US, European and Russian officials.
The newspaper cited the example of President Putin asking Musk not to launch Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan “as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.”
Musk did not respond to the magazine’s request for comment.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that he had seen the report but that the White House was “not in a position to corroborate” it and deferred questions to Musk. A Pentagon spokesperson told the Journal that the Pentagon does not comment on “individual security clearance, vetting, status, or individual security policy issues in connection with reporting on an individual’s conduct.” .
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the paper that Musk and Putin had only one telephone conversation in which they discussed “space and current and future technologies.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Mr. Musk’s support for Ukraine, represented by SpaceX’s provision of Starlink services, has declined, and Mr. Musk’s public statements on the conflict have been eroded by concerns about negotiating an end to the conflict. This is now more in line with what Trump said. War soon. Satellite internet terminals provided by Musk’s company have become a critical communications source for the Ukrainian military, allowing it to continue fighting and stay connected even when cellphone and internet networks have been destroyed.
Russia and cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch told CNN’s Alex Marquardt on “CNN News Central” on Friday that Musk’s Starlink “is essential, especially for Ukraine, because without its services this “Because we couldn’t really move forward with the war.”
After Musk trumpeted early support for Ukraine, SpaceX suddenly asked the Pentagon to pay tens of millions of dollars a month to fund Starlink in Ukraine and ease SpaceX’s burden. . In response to this report, Musk suddenly announced on Twitter that he had withdrawn his request for funding. Around the same time, Mr. Musk used the poll on X to propose a “Ukraine-Russia peace” plan that included redoing elections “under United Nations supervision” in regions of the country recently illegally annexed by Russia. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy questioned Musk’s prioritization of the war, the tech entrepreneur responded that he was “still a big supporter of Ukraine” but was concerned about a “massive escalation.”
SpaceX had previously limited Starlink signals to areas controlled by the Ukrainian military, hampering advances that might have relied on Starlink communications. SpaceX has since expanded it to other parts of the country, and earlier this year the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency claimed to have confirmed the use of Starlink satellite communications by Russian forces in the occupied territories. Russia appears to be purchasing devices from third parties. SpaceX said it does not do any business with the Russian government or military and that its services do not work in Russia. The statement did not mention whether it would work in occupied Ukraine.
Ukraine’s claims follow revelations about the use of satellite systems in warfare in Musk’s biography written by Walter Isaacson. According to excerpts from the book, Mr. Musk last year denied Ukraine’s request to turn on its Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast to thwart a Ukrainian surprise attack on a Russian naval fleet.
Musk’s decision, which was implored by Ukrainian officials to turn the satellite back on, was driven by deep fears that Russia would respond with nuclear weapons to Ukraine’s attack on Crimea. He reported that his conversations with high-ranking officials made him keenly aware of that fear. Isaacson.
In October 2022, Musk denied claims by American political scientist Ian Bremer that he had discussed a proposed “peace plan” with Putin to end wars and conflicts.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, has emerged as a major business figure in this year’s presidential election. In October, he poured about $44 million into a super PAC working to return President Trump to the White House, bringing the billionaire’s total contributions to the group to nearly $119 million, and earlier this month. appeared with Trump on a campaign trail in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Musk also held his own town hall in Pennsylvania last week, urging voters to support Trump and promoting several debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The two have publicly discussed Musk’s potential government role.
Musk recently came under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice after offering a glitzy $1 million daily giveaway to voters in battleground states. Musk’s super PAC on Thursday awarded two $1 million prizes to registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin, despite warnings from the Justice Department that the payments may be illegal.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Sean Ringers, Jackie Wattles and Carnita Iyer contributed to this report.
