沃伦参议员要求特朗普为马斯克制定利益冲突规则
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 18 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦周一致信当选总统唐纳德·特朗普，要求制定明确透明的利益冲突规则，以约束世界首富埃隆·马斯克担任特朗普高级顾问期间的利益冲突。《华盛顿邮报》记者迈克尔·谢勒对此作了下述报道。
民主党参议院办公室通过电子邮件发送给特朗普过渡团队的信函指出，特朗普万斯 2025 过渡团队的常规成员遵守一项道德政策，该政策要求他们“避免实际和明显的利益冲突”。这些规则由美国总务管理局公布，其中包括禁止过渡团队成员“处理涉及特定政党、影响其利益的特定事务”。
根据彭博亿万富翁指数，马斯克的身价为 4740 亿美元，他花费超过 2.5 亿美元帮助特朗普当选总统，此后他便开始用“第一伙伴”的称号来描述自己的角色。他经常出现在特朗普身边，就政府组建提供建议，并在削减联邦开支的新举措中发挥主导作用。目前尚不清楚马斯克在担任特朗普顾问期间同意遵守哪些道德规则（如果有的话）。
“在没有严格的利益冲突协议的情况下，让马斯克先生能够影响数十亿美元的政府合同和监管执法，这无异于招致我们一生中从未见过的腐败，”沃伦写道。“正如你的过渡团队道德计划所明确指出的那样，政府的作用不是填满最富有的美国人的腰包；为世界首富制定一个强有力的、可执行的道德计划是兑现这一承诺的必要第一步。”
过渡发言人卡罗琳·莱维特 (Karoline Leavitt) 在回复这封信时没有提到马斯克的道德承诺。相反，她用一个贬义的绰号称呼沃伦，特朗普曾用这个绰号来形容沃伦，因为她声称自己有一些美洲原住民血统。
伊隆·马斯克和维韦克·拉马斯瓦米将特朗普的 DOGE 带到国会山
莱维特在一份声明中表示：“特朗普总统已经组建了一支最令人印象深刻、最合格的创新者、企业家和天才团队，为我们的政府提供建议和人员。”“波卡洪塔斯可以玩政治游戏，可以发送无力的信件，但特朗普-万斯的过渡将继续遵守最高的道德和法律标准——对于一个职业政治家来说，这一标准并不熟悉，他的社会影响力是伊隆·马斯克的 1/1024。”
在总统竞选期间，马斯克成为特朗普的头号代理人，在宾夕法尼亚州举办活动、出席媒体活动，并高调地发放现金以鼓励选民参与。特朗普承诺，如果当选，将加快联邦火星任务计划，这是马斯克的火箭公司 Space X 的主要任务。马斯克经营的另一家公司特斯拉也获得了联邦资金来建设其电动汽车充电站，他的几家公司在政府面前面临重大监管问题。
美国国家公路安全管理局正在调查特斯拉发生的多起行人事故。马斯克最近发布了对美国证券交易委员会关于潜在证券欺诈的“和解要求”的回应。马斯克的其他企业，包括卫星互联网提供商 Starlink 和脑植入公司 Neuralink，在联邦政府面前有单独的合同和监管问题。
法律通常禁止联邦雇员就影响其自身经济利益的特定事项采取行动。还有适用于某些联邦咨询委员会成员的联邦利益冲突法规。
在最近接受《时代》杂志采访时，特朗普被问及，鉴于他所拥有的公司在政府中拥有大量利益，他是否认为马斯克作为顾问的角色存在利益冲突。
“我认为埃隆把国家放在公司之前，”特朗普回答道。“他认为这是他最重要的项目，他想做这件事。”
沃伦在信中向特朗普团队提出了 14 个问题，这些问题涉及马斯克、他的同事以及特朗普要求马斯克领导的政府效率部项目中其他参与人员的管理规则。这些问题涉及马斯克同意了哪些道德规则，以及他是否同意回避任何事务。
“展望未来，他会回避影响特斯拉、Space X、X 或他拥有或有大量投资的任何其他公司的事务吗？”沃伦问道。
“目前，美国公众无法知道他秘密向你们透露的建议是否对国家有利——或者仅仅对他自己的底线有利，”沃伦写道。
题图：参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦在为当选总统提供建议时，就埃隆·马斯克涉及其业务（包括 Space X、Tesla 和 X）的利益冲突向唐纳德·特朗普提出质询。蒂姆·埃文斯/《华盛顿邮报》
附原英文报道：
Senator Warren asks Trump to set conflict-of-interest rules for Musk
By Michael Scherer The Washington Post,Updated December 17, 2024
Senator Elizabeth Warren has questioned Donald Trump about Elon Musk’s conflicts of interests involving his businesses, including Space X, Tesla and X, while advising the president-elect.Tim Evans/For The Washington Post
Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday to request clear and transparent conflict-of-interest rules that would bind Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, during his role as a top Trump adviser.
The letter sent by email from the Democrat’s Senate office to Trump’s transition team notes that regular members of the Trump Vance 2025 Transition Team operate under an ethics policy that requires them to “avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest.” Those rules, which have been published by the General Services Administration, include prohibition from transition team members working “on particular matters involving specific parties that affect” their interests.
Musk, who is worth $474 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump president and has since embraced the label “first buddy” to describe his role. He has been a frequent presence at Trump’s side, advising on government formation and taking a lead role in a new effort to cut federal spending. It is not clear what ethics rules, if any, Musk, has agreed to follow in his role as a Trump adviser.
“Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes,” Warren wrote. “As your Transition Team Ethics Plan makes clear, the role of government is not to line the pockets of the wealthiest Americans; a strong, enforceable ethics plan for the world’s richest man is a necessary first step for delivering on that promise.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the transition, did not address Musk’s ethics commitments in her response to the letter. She instead addressed Warren with a derogatory nickname that Trump has used to describe Warren because of her claims to having some Native American ancestry.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill
“President Trump has assembled the most impressive and qualified team of innovators, entrepreneurs, and geniuses to advise and staff our government,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Pocahontas can play political games and send toothless letters, but the Trump-Vance transition will continue to be held to the highest ethical and legal standards possible — a standard unfamiliar to a career politician whose societal impact is 1/1024th of Elon Musk’s.”
During the presidential campaign, Musk became a top surrogate for Trump, holding events in Pennsylvania, making media appearances, and staging a high-profile cash giveaway to encourage voter engagement. Trump promised if elected to accelerate federal plans to land a mission on Mars, a major priority of Musk’s rocket company Space X. Tesla, another company Musk runs, receives federal funding for its electric vehicle charging stations, and several of his companies have significant regulatory issues before the government.
The National Highway Safety Administration is investigating Tesla for several pedestrian accidents. Musk recently posted a response to a “settlement demand” from the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential securities fraud. Other Musk enterprises, including the satellite internet provider Starlink and brain implant company Neuralink have separate contracts and regulatory issues before the federal government.
Federal employees are generally prohibited by law from acting on particular matters that affect their own financial interests. There are also federal conflict-of-interest statutes that apply to members of certain federal advisory committees.
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked whether he considered Musk’s role as an adviser a conflict of interest, given the substantial government interests of companies he owns.
“I think that Elon puts the country long before his company,” Trump answered. “He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it.”
The Warren letter asks the Trump team 14 questions about the rules governing Musk, his associates and others involved in the Department of Government Efficiency project that Trump has asked Musk to lead. The questions concern what ethics rules Musk has agreed to and whether he has agreed to recuse himself from any matters.
“Moving forward, will he recuse himself from matters affecting Tesla, Space X, X, or any other company he owns or in which he has a substantial investment?” Warren asks at one point.
“Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country — or merely good for his own bottom line,” Warren wrote.
