Elon Musk is testing the limits of legal and ethical restrictions on the role of special advisers in U.S. presidential administrations, according to some legal experts and lawmakers who oppose the billionaire's mission against what he deems wasteful government spending.

Ethics laws make it a federal criminal offense to take actions that benefit family businesses — even for so-called special government employees, unless a waiver is issued.

Elon Musk and his allies are harnessing tech units and other agencies that handle daily federal operations to amass sweeping control of the executive branch.

Even as Mr Musk was speaking, workers at USAID ’s headquarters in Washington were being told not to come in the next day. Some 600 of the agency’s staff seem to have been locked out of their emails. That followed a weekend in which the agency’s website went offline;

Elon Musk is relying on a coterie of young engineers with little government experience in his takeover of the U.S. Federal government infrastructure. Here are some details about three of them. A spokeswoman for the U.

Elon Musk will work under President Donald Trump as a “special government employee,” designating Musk as an unpaid employee of the federal government with fewer restrictions than full-time employees,

Billionaire Elon Musk may have a novel role within the Trump administration, but the title that allows him to serve in the government has drawn the ire of ethics watchdogs for decades. Musk’s status as a special government employee protects him from typical ethics disclosures,