Washington (Reuters) – Elon Musk said Pentagon employees who spoke to New York Times reporters should be prosecuted after the newspaper reported that the billionaire would be informed about an eventual war that could occur with China.
“The New York Times is pure advertising,” Musk said in a publication on his social media platform on Friday.
“In addition, I look forward to the processes against those in the pentagon that is leaking maliciously false information for the NYT. They will be found,” he added.
Musk’s comments were made after US President Donald Trump also denied the NYT report about his nearby ally.
“China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump said in a Post on the Social Truth on Thursday about a Pentagon meeting in which Musk would attend.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a comment.
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An American authority, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the meeting with Musk would be attended by US military authorities in the Pentagon and would be an overview of several different topics, including China.
Access to a well -kept military plane would mark a strong expansion of the role of Musk as Trump counselor. So far, he has led the efforts of federal spending cuts since Trump has taken office.
He would also feed questions about conflicts of interest to Musk, who, as head of Tesla and Spacex, has commercial interests in China and with the Pentagon.
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The White House had previously said that Musk would refuse to participate if conflicts of interest arose between his business transactions and his role in the cutting of federal government spending.
Last week, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said she had ordered an investigation into leaks from within the intelligence community and is also investigating internal chat rooms to detect any misconduct.
During Trump’s first term, his government sent more leaks to the media for criminal investigation each year than in any of the previous 15 years, according to records released in 2021 by the Justice Department in response to a process of the information access law.
