Elon Musk has accused one of President Donald Trump’s top aides of committing a federal crime.
Weeks after the epic breakup between the president and the world’s richest man, Musk has continued to snipe at Sergio Gor, the director of the presidential personnel office, who he believes fueled his falling out with Trump.
Earlier this week, Musk described Gor as a “snake” after the New York Post reported that, even though Gor is in charge of vetting thousands of executive branch employees, he himself hasn’t been fully vetted.
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But on Friday, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency ramped up his attacks, writing on X: “He deliberately lied about where he was born on Federal forms. That’s a serious crime.”
“Gor is breaking the law,” Musk later added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House about Musk’s latest comment, which came in response to a series of posts by Ukraine-born American race car driver Igor Sushko accusing Gor of being a “Russian spy.”
Sushko had posted a series of articles relating to the White House aide, including a New York Post story questioning where Gor was born; details of a fact-finding trip he took to Russia while working for Senator Rand Paul; an archive of Gor’s high-school email suggesting it referred to him as “Russian-Maltese”; and a now-retracted investigation by former Washington Post reporter-turned-independent journalist Brian Krebs.
Central to Musk’s attack is the claim that Gor failed to file his own SF-86, the critical vetting form required for permanent U.S security clearance. This was despite Gor being responsible for vetting thousands of executive branch employees.
Among other things, the form covers citizenship, employment history, relatives, foreign contacts and travel, financial activities, and drug use. The White House, however, insisted earlier this week that Gor filled out the form, has the relevant clearance, and is a “trusted adviser to President Trump.”
Underpinning Musk’s accusation is a long-standing rift with Gor, who says the 38-year-old fueled his spectacular falling out with Trump earlier this month.
Things got particularly messy when Gor encouraged Trump to rescind his nomination for Jared Isaacman—Musk’s personal friend—to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) just days before his Senate confirmation vote. Trump at the time cited Isaacman’s “prior associations”—a reference to Isaacman’s past donations to Democrats—as the reason for withdrawing his nomination.
Rumours spread that Gor was behind the decision as a way to get back at Musk after the pair had reportedly clashed during Cabinet meetings.
The end of the Musk-Trump bromance rocked Washington—and was watched with stunned amusement all over the world—as the pair traded barbs over everything from who should get credit for Trump’s election victory to whether the government should keep Musk’s SpaceX contracts.
But things took an ugly turn when Musk told his 220-million-plus followers that Trump was named in the files of child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, prompting a major MAGA backlash.
He has since apologized to the president, both publicly and privately, and deleted several of the tweets attacking him.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” he wrote on X.
