Several senior Office of Personnel Management (OPM) political appointees have deeper ties to Elon Musk’s businesses than previously known, according to financial disclosure records obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). The records show that three OPM officials have significant ties to Musk’s businesses, either holding large financial stakes in his companies or on a leave of absence from one of his enterprises….
OPM sets government-wide human resources policies and has become one of the central hubs for Musk’s and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts inside the executive branch, such as sending federal workforce-wide emails questioning government employees about their accomplishments from prior weeks.
One of the three OPM appointees is routinely described as a DOGE staffer, while the other two have also been reported as being involved in DOGE efforts involving government workers. The three are part of a larger constellation of people associated with DOGE. Despite a court filing from the administration denying Musk leads DOGE, Trump, in a speech to Congress on Tuesday, said DOGE “is headed by Elon Musk.”
Press reports cite government sources who say DOGE may be using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data, including that collected by OPM, to identify federal workers for termination and to potentially replace some government employees with AI.
One high-level OPM political appointee, Chief of Staff Amanda Scales, “is on an unpaid leave of absence from xAI,” an artificial intelligence company mostly owned by Musk, according to a disclosure POGO obtained. News stories have described Scales as a former human resources employee at xAI, but they have not described her as on a leave of absence, meaning she has not severed her relationship with that company.
Riccardo Biasini is a software engineer who has worked at Tesla, and more recently at another Musk-owned enterprise, The Boring Company. According to a disclosure POGO obtained, he holds between $1 million and $5 million in stock options in The Boring Company….
An OPM document says Biasini is the point of contact for OPM’s government-wide email system…
A third appointee whose disclosure was reviewed by POGO also shows a substantial personal financial stake in one of Musk’s companies. Gavin Kliger’s financial disclosure states that he is a senior advisor to OPM’s director for technology and delivery. He has been identified as formerly working at Twitter prior to Musk’s purchase of the company, but it is previously unreported that he also owns between $100,001 and $250,000 in stock in Tesla….
Unlike these senior OPM appointees, whose financial disclosures were provided to POGO through a formal request, Musk has been classified as a special government employee. His financial disclosure report is deemed “confidential.”
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