Fox News host Sandra Smith pressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about whether or not billionaire Elon Musk was an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency, despite President Donald Trump repeatedly claiming his ally heads up the agency.
In a court filing on Monday, the White House said that Musk was not legally connected to DOGE in any way. Instead, he was described as a "Senior Advisor to the President."
"Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President's directives," the document said in a possible attempt to avoid accountability for Musk.
On Monday, Smith pressed Leavitt about the affidavit: "The president has introduced him as the head of DOGE multiple times in interviews, yet there's this affidavit that we've been able to get our hands on here, that the press has as well, that it contradicts the White House claim that he's the head of DOGE. This affidavit actually says he doesn't work for DOGE at all."
"I'm happy to clarify," Leavitt replied. "Elon Musk is a special government employee here at the White House, serving at the direction of the president of the United States, Donald Trump."
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"Elon Musk has been tasked with overseeing DOGE on behalf of the president, and DOGE employees, DOGE folks have been onboarding at respective agencies across our federal bureaucracy as political appointees, just like any other political appointee gets on board with a new administration with the changing of hands, and those individuals are helping the secretaries at all of our agencies that have been nominated and confirmed by President Trump in the United States Senate to cut waste, fraud, and abuse at these respective agencies," she added.
Democrats have called on Musk to testify before Congress, but he has not accepted their invitation.
Watch the video below from Fox News.
