Reports that billionaire Elon Musk had multiple calls with Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, should be investigated by the Pentagon and law enforcement on national security grounds , two senior Democratic senators said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.

Musk, who was appointed to a senior government post by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, oversees billions of dollars in contracts with the Pentagon and the intelligence community as CEO of aerospace company SpaceX.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed told U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Pentagon Inspector General , that Musk’s involvement in these SpaceX programs should be investigated for possible exclusion and debarment after reports as recent as October of his conversations with Russian officials. Exclusion refers to the exclusion of certain contracts and privileges.

“These relationships between a well-known U.S. adversary and Mr. Musk, the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. government funding, raise serious questions about Mr. Musk’s trustworthiness as a government contractor and permit holder.” , the lawmakers said in a joint letter. dated Friday.

Several Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for an investigation into Musk’s communications with Moscow since a Wall Street Journal article last month about the alleged contact, but the letter to U.S. officials who could launch such an investigation has not previously been reported .

Shaheen and Reed’s call for a federal investigation is a long-shot effort as Trump prepares to return to the White House with the support of Musk, who spent more than $119 million on Trump’s campaign. Trump’s reelection and was named co-leader of the president-elect. to come from the Ministry of Government Effectiveness.

SpaceX, Musk and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon and Justice Department did not immediately respond to similar requests.

RUSSIAN CONTACT REPORTS

Reports of Musk’s contacts with Russian officials emerged in 2022, when political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of consultancy Eurasia Group, said Musk told him he had spoken with Putin about the war in Ukraine and Russia’s red line regarding the use of nuclear weapons.

Musk denied Bremmer’s claims and said he had only spoken to Putin 18 months earlier about space.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had several conversations with Russian officials, including Putin and his first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, citing unnamed U.S., European and Russian officials.

Shaheen and Reed said in the letter that it was “deeply concerning” that Musk had conversations with Kiriyenko. He was indicted this year along with other Russian officials by the U.S. Department of Justice for running an AI-driven propaganda campaign on Musk’s social media platform X and other sites to promote interests Russians and influence voters before the US presidential election.

Musk has publicly claimed he has a US security clearance, giving him access to secret information from SpaceX, which holds billions of dollars in launch contracts from the Pentagon and NASA. The company also signed a $1.8 billion contract with the intelligence community to build a vast network of spy satellites, Reuters reported.

“Communications between Russian government officials and anyone with security clearance can potentially put our security at risk,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Tensions between the United States and Russia in space have intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Pentagon officials have condemned suspicious maneuvers by Russian satellites in orbit and this year accused Russia to develop a space nuclear weapon capable of disabling large satellite networks.

Musk’s SpaceX has come to dominate the US space industry and NASA and the Pentagon rely heavily on it.

The company’s Starlink Internet network of nearly 7,000 satellites has made SpaceX the world’s largest satellite operator and a disruptive force in the satellite Internet sector, with strong interest from the Pentagon in military communications. The Ukrainian military relies heavily on Starlink for battlefield connectivity.

The senators sent a separate letter to U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Friday saying Musk’s reported conversations raised the need for greater competition in the satellite launch and communications industries and the use of more companies than SpaceX for sensitive national security missions.

“Mr. Musk’s reported behavior could pose serious national security risks and, as CEO of a company with billions of dollars in sensitive defense and intelligence contracts, would warrant a reconsideration of SpaceX’s outsized role in (Department of Defense) Commercial Space Integration,” the lawmakers said. said.