By Molly Goddard
9:03am PST, Feb 28, 2025
Is
Elon Musk crossing the line with his special government job?
During a Thursday, February 27, episode of
The Lead with Jake Tapper — which featured guest host
Phil Mattingly —
CNN senior legal analyst
Elie Honig slammed the tech mogul for trying to have the Federal Aviation Administration breach its contract with Verizon and use his company SpaceX.
Join us to hear what the expert said about Musk's pressure to push his business…
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Mattingly began the segment by claiming the
Telsa founder suggested SpaceX "take over a vital multi-billion-dollar air traffic control system contract," which would entail "kicking the current contract holder, Verizon, to the curb and using instead his Starlink system to overhaul what he calls a dire system breakdown."
The host pressed Honing on how the government would deal with the "conflict of interest" of the matter.
"This is as flagrant as conflicts of interest get," the attorney stated.
"You're talking about Elon Musk, who now works for the federal government in some capacity, recommending that the federal government give a $2 billion contract to a private company that he owns," he pointed out.
"Now, normally the way this is policed is within the executive branch itself. The employee in this case, Elon Musk, would either recuse from the government side or divest from the private side. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen. And the alternative here is enforcement goes through the
Justice Department," the lawyer added.
According to Honing, the move would set a terrible precedent for the country. "It actually is a federal crime, if you are an officer or employee of the federal government, if you award a government contract to a private company that you have a direct personal stake in," he said.
The network's specialist emphasized how Musk shouldn't be allowed to get away with illegal actions because of his standing with President
Donald Trump. "Lower-level federal officials have actually been prosecuted for doing just that. And alternatively, the Attorney General can go to court and try to get a transaction like this blocked on the basis of conflict of interest," Honing explained.
However, with
The Apprentice alum on his side, the chances of the X owner's alleged plan being halted may be slim.
"Of course, the big problem that I'm sure everybody is wondering about here is there's just no way that this Justice Department is going to take any of these
measures to try to stop Elon Musk," Honing noted.
CNN aviation correspondent
Pete Muntean chimed in to add that to cancel the government's deal with Verizon would be an "enormously complicated"
legal matter.
"It's not just like flipping a light switch on or off. There is a very long, drawn out, complicated administrative process that has to be gone through," he noted.
