Sen. Ron Wyden is calling foul on the Trump administration's insistence that it's not letting X owner Elon Musk run roughshod over congressional checks and balances.
In an interview with the New Republic's Greg Sargent, Wyden casts doubt on a letter sent from the Treasury Department to Congress this week claiming that Musk and his minions are simply undertaking an "audit" of the federal government and are not making unilateral decisions to destroy government agencies despite Musk's claim over the weekend that he put the United States Administration of International Development (USAID) into a "wood chipper."
“This letter reeks of a cover-up,” Wyden told Sargent. “It doesn’t pass the smell test.”
Sargent then goes on to dissect the letter, which claims Musk underline Tom Krause merely has “read-only access” to “coded data” of Treasury’s payment systems and is not authorized to cut off payments on a whim.
ALSO READ: Trump-backing Muslim voters finally realize they 'made a big mistake': expert
However, Wyden tells Sargent that his staff have talked with former Treasury officials who say there is no precedent from previous administrations for the kind of scope and access to data that have been granted to outsiders such as Musk.
“We have no indication that this story about an ongoing audit of the payment system is legit,” Wyden told me. “There is no good reason for political operatives to get into these systems.”
Wyden also raised concerns about Musk, who is himself a government contractor thanks to his ownership of SpaceX, gaining access to secret information about his competitors.
"“The possibilities for corruption are endless,” he said. “Whistleblowers are needed now more than any time in my time in public service.”