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By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers pressed the secretary of energy on Wednesday whether members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have access to classified information on nuclear weapons, saying nuclear secrets need to be tightly safeguarded.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
U.S. Department of Energy sources have raised concerns about the access three members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have at the Department of Energy's IT systems.
The DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration manages the country's nuclear weapons stockpile and is responsible for managing dangerous materials proliferation risks.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC last week that the DOGE members do not have security clearances and are not looking at nuclear weapons secrets. Wright said they are "friends in Elon's broader circle."
A department spokesman said on Wednesday: “No DOGE employees at the Energy Department have accessed or have been granted access to classified information or facilities including, but not limited to NNSA classified information."
KEY QUOTE
"The nation and the world need to know that U.S. nuclear secrets are robustly safeguarded," the lawmakers, Senator Edward Markey and U.S. Representative Donald Beyer, wrote to Wright in a letter dated Wednesday. "It is, therefore, dangerously unacceptable that Elon Musk’s DOGE — including individuals lacking adequate security clearances — has been granted access to DOE’s information technology system despite legitimate security concerns inside the agency."
CONTEXT
The sources have said one of the DOGE members at the department is Luke Farritor, who is a former intern at SpaceX, Musk's space company who studied computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Farritor has not responded to requests for comment.
The DOE sources are concerned that the DOGE members will have access to secure information on computer drives and human resources systems. Beyond NNSA data, they are concerned DOGE will have access to data on grants and loans on energy projects and financial management systems.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
