Advocacy Group Alleges FCC Withholding Critical Information on Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk Ties
A legal battle is intensifying as an advocacy group and a journalist accuse the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of acting “in bad faith” by withholding crucial documents related to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its potential conflicts of interest with billionaire Elon Musk.
One year and nearly 2,000 pages of documents into a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Frequency Forward and journalist Nina Burleigh are now seeking court-ordered discovery and depositions to unearth what they claim the FCC has deliberately kept private. Their attorney, Arthur Belendiuk, asserts that the agency has produced “only sanitized email threads” and has sought to “delay document production,” unequivocally stating, “The evidence clearly demonstrates that the FCC has acted in bad faith by withholding documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request.”
The Unseen Connections: Musk, SpaceX, and FCC Chair Carr
At the core of the FOIA request is a desire to illuminate any potential conflicts of interest arising from Elon Musk’s public role with DOGE and his control over SpaceX, an entity regulated by the FCC. The plaintiffs specifically sought documents pertaining to FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s visits to facilities affiliated with Musk’s ventures, including SpaceX and Tesla.
Public Posts, Private Records: A Discrepancy
Despite Carr publicly posting about at least eight such visits on X (formerly Twitter) within the request period, Frequency Forward claims the FCC failed to produce any corresponding documents—no planning emails, travel itineraries, or calendar events. This glaring omission fuels the group’s contention that the FCC is actively obscuring the full scope of interaction.
Belendiuk emphasizes the critical nature of this information, arguing that the FCC has “refused to consider the conflict-of-interest created, on the one hand, by Musk’s role as a super contributor to the Republican Party, his role as head of DOGE and, on the other hand, his control of SpaceX as an FCC regulated entity.” He adds that a detailed account of these contacts is essential for public understanding.
Missing Links: Redactions, Texts, and Ethical Lapses
The alleged lack of transparency extends beyond travel records. The plaintiffs highlight that the only email from Chair Carr himself in the entire production is fully redacted. This email reportedly concerned the agency’s response to press inquiries, including one from The Verge about DOGE employees within the FCC staff directory.
Furthermore, Frequency Forward states that the FCC produced no text messages responsive to the FOIA request, nor did it acknowledge their existence with an explanation for their non-disclosure, despite some released emails referencing text exchanges. The FCC has yet to comment on these latest allegations.
The Enigma of Tarak Makecha: Unclear Onboarding, Sensitive Data Access
Adding another layer of concern, the advocacy group points to the case of Tarak Makecha, a DOGE detailee from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Makecha reportedly spent two weeks at the FCC, during which he requested and sometimes received “a substantial amount of information from Commission staff including broadband mapping data and detailed personnel records regarding Commission employees.”
Alarmingly, the filing states there is “no evidence that Makecha was ever actually ‘onboarded’ to the Commission or cleared required security or ethics checks prior to receiving such information.” This is particularly troubling given Makecha’s public financial disclosure, which revealed holdings in Tesla, Disney, and a telecommunications portfolio. Yet, the FCC produced no documents detailing ethics approvals or recusal agreements for him.
“Who leaves a federal post almost as soon as it begins, after seeking sensitive agency data, and why is the paper trail so thin?” Belendiuk questioned in a statement to The Verge. “If the Commission wants the public to believe this was routine, it should be able to produce routine onboarding, ethics, and clearance records. Instead, those records are missing or fragmented, and what we have seen raises more questions than it answers.”
As the legal proceedings continue, the call for transparency from the FCC grows louder, with the public awaiting a clearer picture of the interactions between government efficiency initiatives, powerful tech figures, and regulatory bodies.
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