By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Tesla founder and tech billionaire, Elon Musk on Friday held an unprecedented meeting at the Pentagon, calling for the prosecution of Defence Department officials who will leak “maliciously false information” about his visit.
Musk, whose firms have a number of Defence Department contracts, was received at the Pentagon by U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and they met for about 80 minutes in his first of such visit.
Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is heading the campaign to cut government spending denied report by New York Times that would be briefed on secret war plans for China, describing it as “pure propaganda”.
“I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found,” he wrote on X before the meeting with Defence Secretary, Hegseth.
At the White House where they met with President Donald Trump, Hegseth said he had an informal conversation with Musk which focused innovation and efficiencies.
“There was no war plans, no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans,” Hegseth said.
Musk arrived in a convoy at the Pentagon on Friday morning and quickly moved upstairs to meet Hegseth who said on X the talks would focus on “innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Access to a closely guarded military plan would mark a sharp expansion of Musk’s role as the Trump Adviser.
It is believed that while Musk already has several contracts with the Pentagon, the opportunities for his companies, SpaceX in particular, to drive billions of dollars of revenue is high with Trump as President.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had last week said she had ordered an investigation into leaks from inside the intelligence community and is also probing internal chat rooms for any misconduct by employees.
