• The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin have been making secret calls since 2022.
• Several Washington officials are now seeking an investigation into the report.
• A former DoD analyst said such a relationship could pose national security issues.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation in The Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Several Washington officials began pushing for an investigation less than a day after The Journal — citing multiple current and former U.S., European and Russian officials — reported that Musk and Putin had regular calls since 2022 in which they discussed “personal subjects, business. and geopolitical tensions”.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. One statement on X, which Musk reposted, the official SpaceX account described The Journal’s report as an “incredibly misleading story” based on “completely unsubstantiated claims from unnamed sources.”

Friday, Nelson said Traffic lights which calls between Musk, the the richest man in the worldand Putin “would be worrisome” if true, especially for NASA and the Defense Department. Nelson added that The Journal’s report should be investigated, but did not specify by which agency.

That same day, Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Political that the Defense Department should investigate Musk to ensure that his alleged actions are not “detrimental” to the country’s national security.

Senator Jeanne Shaheena Democrat from New Hampshire and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed similar calls on Friday. post on X.

Representatives for NASA, Representative Smith and Senator Shaheen did not respond to requests for further comment from BI.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied The Journal’s report, saying Putin had only one phone conversation with Musk, during which they discussed space and future technologies.

In a statement to Business Insider, a Defense Department spokesperson said the DoD is aware of The Journal’s reports but “cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports” and referred BI to Musk “to talk about the communications his privates”.

Why Musk’s international connections matter

The billionaire’s SpaceX has become a key player in federal space exploration. In 2021, it won a classified $1.8 billion contract to build a satellite network in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that manages spy satellites. The astronautics company also supplied rockets and other equipment Pentagon and GODMOTHER.

Thanks to his work with the federal government through SpaceX, Musk owns a security clearance which gives him access to some classified information.

Having ties to a foreign country is not inherently a disqualifying factor for a security clearance, Steven Stransky, a former adviser to both the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Council, told BI.

Musk’s ties to foreign governments and leaders would have been taken into account before he was granted such clearance.

“The security clearance adjudication process takes into account several factors, and undue foreign influence is just one of those factors,” said Stransky, now a partner at the law firm Thompson Hine.

Stansky said that while the level of influence other people have over the billionaire is unclear, Musk’s personal relationships may be of interest to the government given his security clearance and professional proximity to state secrets.

A security clearance would generally be denied to anyone with a “friendly relationship” with Putin, said Robert English, a former DoD policy analyst who held a top security clearance and is the current director of Central European studies at the University of California south.

The newspaper reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, that during one of their conversations, Putin asked Musk to refrain from activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan by making the request on his behalf the leader of china Xi Jinping.

“Even if Musk didn’t give in to this request, that’s too much power in the hands of this individual,” English said.

The existence of an ongoing Musk-Putin relationship would be further complicated by the billionaire tech leader’s recent foray into American politics.

Both Trump and Musk have said the billionaire is a likely candidate for a seat in the the future of the former president cabinet. In a speech in September, Trump said that if re-elected, he plans to create a government efficiency commission to be overseen by Musk, who the Tesla CEO said he “can’t wait” to run for.

“If Musk is not fully loyal to the U.S. or has traded with our adversaries,” English said, “it’s important that we know now.”