Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanding solutions about attainable $400 million State Division buy of Tesla Cybertrucks
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the rating member on the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, despatched a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio Thursday night time demanding solutions and paperwork regarding the State Division’s attainable buy of $400 million value of armored Tesla Cybertrucks from the corporate run by Elon Musk.
“Mr. Musk’s twin roles pose conflicts of curiosity so apparent that they hardly require clarification,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote within the letter obtained by CBS Information. “The State Division’s intent to buy armored Cybertrucks suggests the conflicts of curiosity inherent in Mr. Musk’s set up of his cronies all through the federal government will not be being adequately managed and, actually, are growing by the minute.
“Within the 15 months because it was launched, the Cybertruck has been extensively derided and topic to a minimum of six separate recollects. Certainly, Tesla has reportedly had “disastrous” gross sales numbers for the Cybertruck. It hardly looks as if the kind of dependable car the State Division would select for this contract absent a heavy thumb on the size.”
Blumenthal requested for a response by Feb 21.
Final week, he opened a preliminary inquiry into Musk and his corporations.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, who can be CEO of SpaceX and X (previously Twitter), has huge authorities contracts and was a enormous contributor to Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign.
He heads the newly-created Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, which, whereas not an official authorities company, is aggressively pursuing methods to chop the federal price range.
Musk’s crew has gone into laptop programs in quite a few businesses searching for what he calls waste, fraud and abuse. Quite a few lawsuits have been filed difficult his authority to do this.
In October, GM Protection accomplished its first Suburban Defend — a heavy-duty armored model of the suburban for the State Division’s Diplomatic Safety Service (DSS). This system is meant to supply armored SUVs to DSS and greater than a dozen different federal businesses, in keeping with GM Protection. GM gained the 10-year, as much as $300 million greenback contract in November 2023.
