On Thursday, March 13, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s acting Inspector General. The complaint asks them to investigate if Elon Musk unlawfully influenced government decision-making and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contracts involving his satellite business.
CLC is a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the challenges facing American democracy. Its mission is to fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity, or economic status.
CLC’s Kedric Payne said the following about the ethics complaint: “ The American people deserve an unimpeded investigation to determine whether Elon Musk has violated conflict of interest laws by prioritizing his own personal financial interests over the public good,” said Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director for ethics at Campaign Legal Center. “Based on his public statements, it appears that Musk has corrupted decision-making at the FAA involving the agency's use of his satellite internet business. Corruption happens when government officials abuse their powerful positions for personal gain — Elon Musk owes it to the American public to remove himself from overseeing policy decisions connected to his personal profits.”
The complaint states the following: Campaign Legal Center writes to request that the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) investigate whether the Federal Aviation Administration’s (“FAA”) business transactions with Elon Musk’s satellite internet company are improper due to violations of the criminal conflict of interest law, 18 U.S.C. § 208. Specifically, public reports establish that the FAA began using Starlink services and considering contracts with the company in response to Musk’s requests, who is a special government employee (“SGE”) and the CEO of Starlink. Multiple FAA officials, including the Department of Transportation Secretary and one of the Department’s lead engineers, publicly stated that Musk is the source of the directives for the FAA to implement Starlink technology. If Musk participated in or directed discussions with FAA employees concerning business transactions with Starlink, he may have violated the criminal conflict of interest law and corrupted FAA’s business relationship with Starlink.
For over 60 years, federal law has banned executive branch employees, including SGEs, from participating in business transactions where they may receive a financial benefit. Courts have found that this law is intended to protect public trust in government because when an executive branch employee profits from a government contract, the contract is tainted, and it diminishes confidence in government.4 OIG is responsible for investigating ethics issues connected to FAA’s business partners, and its stated priorities include “fraud schemes that significantly impact DOT funds [and] employee integrity violations.
Accordingly, the evidence suggesting that Musk has blatantly and improperly influenced the FAA’s decision to work with Starlink warrants a thorough OIG fact-finding. The public has a right to know that their tax dollars are being spent in the public’s best interest and not to benefit a government employee’s financial interests. OIG should investigate the FAA’s recent decision to use Starlink and Musk’s conduct to determine whether a criminal violation occurred.
Federal Criminal Law Prohibits Special Government Employees from Influencing an Agency’s Business Transactions Involving their Financial Interests
Pursuant to the federal criminal conflicts of interest law, “an officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States Government . . . including a special Government employee,” shall not participate “personally and substantially as a Government officer or employee, through decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise, in a . . . contract . . . or other particular matter in which, to his knowledge, he . . . has a financial interest.
The full complaint with citations can be viewed by clicking HERE.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.