House Oversight and Accountability Committee Democrats moved to subpoena Elon Musk – former White House senior advisor and public face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – ahead of a hearing today on artificial intelligence and data, where lawmakers were warned that DOGE’s push to dismantle agency data silos could endanger national cybersecurity.
In an effort led by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the acting ranking member of the Oversight committee, Democrats pushed to subpoena Musk to testify before the committee on actions he helped oversee while serving as a special government employee and aide to President Donald Trump, and while also, according to a May 30 New York Times report, under the influence of a variety of drugs.
“We cannot sit here, however, and have the traditionally bipartisan conversation about Federal IT modernization without acknowledging the fact that the Trump Administration, Elon Musk, and DOGE are leading technology initiatives that threaten the privacy and security of all Americans and undermine our government and the vital services it provides to red states and blue states alike,” said Rep. Lynch.
“Musk may say he has stepped away from his role in the federal government, but his recklessness will continue to have devastating consequences for America for years, possibly decades, to come,” the congressman said while sitting before signs featuring blown-up photos of Musk, one reading “Was Elon Musk on drugs when he stole your private data?”
Rep. Lynch moved to subpoena Musk, which drove Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., chairwoman of the Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee, to call the motion as a voice vote, claiming that the “nays” prevailed while Democrats decried her move as not following procedure.
“The Republicans are not in the room, so they’re trying to find their members,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., announced to the room after the chairwoman was then called upon to hold a roll call vote, suspending the hearing until the Republican members of the committee entered the hearing room.
A couple of Democrats then questioned whether Rep. Mace was holding off on the vote because she knew she “was about to lose it.”
The move to subpoena Musk on Thursday was the second time the committee’s Democrats attempted to hold the former Federal official accountable for helping to oversee the mass firing, data access, and Federal government restructuring efforts by the Trump administration.
Musk announced last week his departure from the Federal government, while Trump left the door open to his continued involvement with DOGE as a private citizen.
While today’s subpoena attempt proved unsuccessful, the minority witness later in the hearing similarly warned against DOGE’s actions to share data between Federal agencies, pointing to the potential of easier access to private data that adversaries might have following as a result.
“You all need to assume that our adversaries have copies of all the data DOGE has [accessed] and have established access into all the networks that DOGE … has removed security controls [from] and your data can be used against you,” said Bruce Schneier, a fellow and adjunct lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School.
“We’ve had one example of a Russian actor going in after a DOGE employee using their credentials – that’s the one [thing] we know about these countries [they] are not stupid, they know how to do espionage,” Schneier said.