It sounds like a lot of responsibility for two men that nobody elected to office.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Gizmodo: We dont know much about this new Department of Government Efficiency.
Elon Musk owes much of his wealth to the kind of government spending he’s now supposed to curtail.© Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Jordan Libowitz: We dont really know what this new body is.
They use the term department, but it is not likely to actually be a department.
Departments are created by Congress and Congress has not created a new department here.
So its likely not to be something that goes through a Senate confirmation process.
Libowitz: There are a couple of possibilities.
It depends on how theyll be interacting with government employees.
Will they be directing government employees in any way?
Will they be viewed as speaking on behalf of Trump and his administration?
What are their duties?
Depending on those, they would be subject to conflict of interest laws.
They would have to file financial disclosures.
Section 208, the Criminal Conflict of Interest Statute, would kind of tighten what theyre able to do.
When you have 208 concerns, youre talking about a matter of either recusal or divestiture.
What we have heard is [Trump] using the term advise, right?
Theyre going to be advising the government.
So its also going to be a question of whether this falls under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
If this is considered a FACA group, theyre going to have to be more transparent.
Libowitz: You know, influence is a funny thing.
There are a lot of ways to have it.
But the more kind of concrete action theyre taking, the more likely it would classify as lobbying.
Gizmodo: If Musk does have to file a financial disclosure, what might we learn from it?
Where is he invested elsewhere?
Libowitz: I have no earthly idea.
This could be anywhere from they are running a shadow government to they just got shooed into a corner.
We just dont have enough details about what this actually is.
I think only time will tell what amount of influence it has.
The government moves slowly.
Congress is many things, but fast isnt one of them.
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