Elon under watch? Report says FBI, DHS tracked foreign nationals visiting Musk amid influence concerns
U.S. agencies watched people from other countries who visited Elon Musk. They were worried someone might try to influence him. Musk's strong links with the U.S. government and reported talks with Putin raised security concerns.
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U.S. federal agencies were watching foreigners who visited Elon Musk because they thought some of them might try to influence him. The agencies involved included the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, as per reports.This tracking happened at Musk's U.S. homes in 2022 and 2023. The investigation mainly looked at visitors from Eastern Europe and a few other places. The FBI and others were briefed about the investigation, but no one was charged. The names or nationalities of the foreign visitors were not made public, according to The Wall Street Journal report.DHS refused to comment, and Musk's team and the FBI didn't respond either. The government got worried because Musk has sensitive contracts with them and has a lot of access to U.S. officials. Since 2008, Musk's companies have gotten nearly $21 billion from the U.S. government, as per reports.Most of that money is from SpaceX, his space company that has deals with the Defense Department for launching satellites. Some of those satellites are for the National Reconnaissance Office, which is a secretive U.S. agency, as stated in the report by The Independent.People started talking about this tracking after Musk had a dramatic fallout with Trump last week in Washington, D.C. Musk had helped Trump's campaign by starting a super PAC last year. But later, staffers in the America PAC got suspicious about Musk's foreign ties and added strict checks to keep foreigners out, as per reports.In 2023, it was reported that Musk was regularly talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. U.S. officials said Musk and Putin talked about business and world problems, as per reports.A Russian official, Dmitry Peskov, said there was only one call. He said they spoke about space and technology. He said they didn't talk often, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.When asked, a SpaceX spokesperson said the claims about Musk's talks with Putin were 'misleading' and 'unsubstantiated,' as per the report by The Independent.They thought some foreigners might try to affect Musk's views or actions.Reports say they spoke once about space, but Musk's team says the claims are not true.
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