Prof. Richard Painter Quoted in The Guardian About Musk’s Conflict of Interest While Cutting Government Employees

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, was quoted in The Guardian about Elon Musk faces mounting claims he has conflicts of interest and no oversight. Musk, Donald Trump’s largest campaign donor and the world’s wealthiest man, was tapped by the president to lead the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) in a cost-cutting drive that allows him to keep control of SpaceX, Tesla and other huge companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts. Prof. Painter said, “Musk is now a federal officer subject to the criminal conflict of interest statute, 18 USC 208. He cannot own stock in Tesla which offers car loans and at the same time participate in dismantling the CFPB. Also he cannot have X [formerly Twitter] go into consumer finance and at the same time participate in dismantling the CFPB.” Likewise, given Musk’s artificial intelligence business xAI, Prof. Painter stressed: “AI will have a big role in making the government more efficient, However, federal officers working for DOGE cannot legally have an equity stake in an xAI company that will very likely make money from the government shifting toward AI.”