Pay Attention to the CIA
According to an Atlantic article, titled The Constitutional Crisis is Here, “Elon Musk, to whom Donald Trump has delegated the task of neutering the congressional spending authoritaiy laid out in Article I of the Constitution, could hardly be more obvious about his intentions if he rode into Washington on a horse trailed by Roman legions.”
There certainly is an argument there, in that Musk is unelected, very wealthy, and has many conflicting personal and business reasons to disqualify his role.
But arguments aside, his foray into the slashing and burning of American influence is international as well, and has very wide repercussions.
International, I might remind you, is CIA territory, and the Central Intelligence Agency doesn’t much appreciate amateurs diddling about in its dominion.
To put a somewhat sharper focus on it, the CIA’s ‘business’ is largely opaque, ranging from domestic wiretapping to the ‘enhanced rendition’ of terrorist suspects to ‘offshore’ torture sites. Rumor has it that the organization is, and has been, hip-deep in regime change and election interference among nations less friendly to America.
Far be it for me to make such accusations, but ex-president Harry Truman is on record as commenting that “he would never have authorized the CIA if he had known it would turn out to be the American Gestapo.”
Further on, The Atlantic article reveals, “In theory, Congress ought to revolt against the prospect of Musk deciding which federal programs should live and which should die. In reality, its Republican members largely share Trump’s goals—and to the extent that they don’t, they correctly fear that opposing him would invite a primary challenge. What’s more, this particular constitutional crisis has an inherent partisan asymmetry. If Trump and Musk succeed in taking the power of the purse from Congress, they will effectively reset the rules of the game in favor of the right.”
In Musk’s current kerfuffle, essentially raiding the Treasury Department with his band of un-security-rated Muskrats, some not yet out of their teens, violates 18 U.S. Code § 798 - Disclosure of classified information.
While Musk himself has a top-secret clearance, anyone passing such information on to others becomes guilty of offense, and shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned for not more than 8 years, or both.
The Musketeer, in this case, would be the ‘anyone.’
Over on the CIA side, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia had this to say:
“There are few government agencies more essential to our national security than the CIA,” Warner said in a statement. "A lot of federal employees, including at the CIA, are my constituents, and I’ve been warning them that these ‘buyouts’ are empty promises, since Congress hasn’t approved any money to do it. I’d hate to see people resign and then get stiffed like the contractors on President Trump’s construction projects.”
One ‘stiffs,’ or even messes around, with the CIA at their own risk.