A top Federal Election Commission official has accused the Department of Justice of violating federal policies and targeting “perceived political opponents” for a letter it sent to Elon Musk.
FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey argued that the agency’s actions amounted to efforts “to intimidate and chill private citizens and organizations from campaigning on behalf of President Trump” and tried to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Wednesday.
The FEC chief also called on Horowitz and the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility to open an investigation into the matter and “hold accountable any individuals responsible for any violations of federal law or department policies.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DOJ for comment outside of normal business hours but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.
Cooksey’s words mark the FEC’s official reaction to a letter the DOJ sent to Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee just weeks before Election Day.
The letter, which was first reported by the New York Times, warned Musk’s America PAC that the $1 million giveaway he was offering to voters who signed his organization’s petition in support of constitutional freedom might violate the law.
While Musk had defended the giveaways by noting participants “do not need to register as Republicans or vote in the Nov. 5 elections,” the news set off a media firestorm, with Democratic critics using the DOJ’s letter to claim Musk was making “a mockery of democracy.”
“The underlying motivation behind this stunt is obvious,” Cooksey said after comparing the DOJ’s warning letter to the 1972 Watergate scandal. “Employees of President Biden’s Department of Justice wanted to stop an independent political committee from campaigning for President Trump in crucial swing states just prior to election day.”
Cooksey also accused the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section of immediately leaking the letter it sent to Musk to the New York Times and said the move violated the department’s media policies.
“Writing such a letter and then leaking it also violates the department’s long-standing policy against the identification of uncharged parties and the disclosure of prejudicial information,” he wrote.
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Musk is a longtime Democrat who supported former President Barack Obama before saying he began to shift to the GOP over the last few years. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk endorsed Trump following the first assassination attempt on the president-elect in July. He was appointed this week along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency for the incoming Trump administration.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump said Tuesday.