President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire who was made a “special government employee” to lead his nonofficial Department of Government Efficiency, are breaking laws “right and left,” says former Obama White House ethic lawyer Norm Eisen.
Musk spent a quarter-billion dollars to help reelect Trump and is now dismantling federal agencies and slashing public spending his newfound department deems wasteful. Meanwhile, his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have reportedly received billions in federal contracts.
While the Trump administration tried to assuage concern last week by claiming Musk would “excuse himself” from potential conflicts of interest, Eisen — Obama’s former special counsel for ethics and government reform — says it just doesn’t work that way.
“The ethics laws are there to protect against conflicts,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, per Mediaite. “So, people who are working for the government are serving the public interest, not their own interest. Elon Musk is slashing staff in agencies that are investigating him.”
The world’s richest man has certainly benefited from Trump’s second administration, as various government officials who were leading investigations or lawsuits against his companies have been fired in recent weeks, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
“What arrangements have been made?” Eisen said Tuesday before rattling off a litany of pressing concerns: “We haven’t seen his financial disclosures. Supposedly, he’s signed it. How is he dealing with these conflicts? Does he have waivers? Is he recused?”
“You have a criminal president, 34 convictions,” he continued. “No wonder he’s happy with Elon Musk. They’re violating the law right and left! And it’s a lie by the president that he always abides by court orders. I was in that courtroom in New York.”
Trump stood trial in Manhattan last year on 34 charges of falsifying business documents to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with porn actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election — and was found guilty on all counts ahead of the 2024 election.
Eisen said Tuesday that Trump “broke the judge’s directive again and again” during the six-week proceedings. He noted that the MAGA chief “was fined” repeatedly for doing so and “didn’t stop until the judge threatened him with jail,” which ultimately never came to pass.
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It was the first time a U.S. president was tried and convicted of criminal charges. While many believed the walls were closing in on Trump — as each count carried a maximum penalty of four years in prison — he was sentenced in January to unconditional discharge.
Trump, who thus faces no punishment for the charges he was found guilty of, gave a press conference Tuesday in the Oval Office to defend DOGE alongside Musk, who claimed his brand of government reform is “what democracy is all about.”