Lawmakers demand Palantir provide information about US contracts
Ten Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Palantir on Monday demanding that the technology company answer questions about its expanding federal contracts under the Trump administration.
The letter cited a New York Times article in May that reported the Trump administration had broadened Palantir's work across the government, with the company receiving more than $113 million in federal government spending since President Donald Trump took office. Officials said the White House was laying the groundwork, partly by using Palantir technology, to consolidate data across the government so it could potentially compile a master list of personal information on Americans.
The letter, which was reviewed by the Times, was drafted by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Other members of Congress who signed included Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.
'We write to demand information' about reports that Palantir is 'enabling and profiting from serious violations of federal law by the Trump administration, which is amassing troves of data on Americans,' the letter said.
The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on people through government databases, including their bank account numbers and medical claims. Trump could potentially use such information to police immigrants and punish critics, Democratic lawmakers and others have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access.
Republican lawmakers have also raised concerns about the Trump administration's plans to consolidate data across government agencies.
Palantir's work on such a project could be 'dangerous,' Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told the Semafor news site this month. 'When you start combining all those data points on an individual into one database, it really essentially creates a digital ID. And it's a power that history says will eventually be abused.'
After the Times published the article about Palantir, the company said on social platform X that the report 'is blatantly untrue' and published a blog post denying it was a vendor on a project to unify databases across federal agencies.
In a statement Monday, the company said: 'Palantir does not build surveillance technology, and we are not building a central database on Americans -- nor will we.'
Palantir specializes in finding patterns in data and presenting the information in ways that are easy to process and navigate. Its government contracts include the Defense Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the letter Monday, the Democratic lawmakers asked that Palantir preserve emails and other records 'in anticipation of future litigation and congressional oversight.'
The possibility of a single, consolidated database on Americans is a 'surveillance nightmare that raises a host of legal concerns, not least that it will make it significantly easier for Donald Trump's administration to spy on and target his growing list of enemies and other Americans,' the letter said.
A White House spokesperson referred to an executive order Trump signed in March calling for the federal government to share data across agencies and said it was 'to streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars.'
The letter from the lawmakers included questions for Alex Karp, Palantir's CEO, such as asking him for a list of the company's current contracts with the federal government. The letter also asked whether Palantir had 'sought or received assurances from the U.S. government that its executives, board members and employees will not be held responsible for violations of federal law.'
Karp, who donated to the Democratic Party last year, has welcomed Trump. Palantir helped support Saturday's military parade in Washington celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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