Elon Musk is a ‘special employee of the government.’ What does that mean?

The White House this week, after repeated questions from the news media, said Elon Musk now serves as what it called a “special government employee” as he radically helps renew the federal government operations. It would give Mr. Musk a kind of hybrid status somewhere between a private citizen and a federal employee full time.

A White House spokesman told The New York Times on Monday that Mr. Musk has been given this status as a special state employee, but no official records have been released documenting it.

What is a special employee of the government?

A special employee of the government is an executive branch that has been appointed “performing important but limited services to the government, with or without compensation, for a period that does not exceed 130 days” for a period of one year.

Most often, people in this role serve in special advisory committees who depend on experts in the private sector to help shape the government’s decision -making, such as deciding what kind of pesticides are safe to spend on food.

But advisers in senior deer have held such positions in the past. Huma Abedin worked under the Obama administration as a state department adviser, while he also had a private sector job. Scott Atlas, a doctor, advised President Trump on questions related to pandemic during his first period.

What are the rules of such employees?

Federal law does not block a special government officer in playing a role in a general election that happens to affect the financial holdings of others, such as a new tax policy affecting millions of Americans.

But as a special employee of the government is Mr. Musk subject to a federal criminal justice that blocks him to intervene in a ”Special case“It has a direct benefit to his own financial interest or his family unless he has received a special waiver from the federal government.

The law “prohibits government employees from participating in person in person and significantly in official issues where they have a financial interest,” not only for themselves, but for “their spouse, minor child, general partner and certain other persons and organizations,” According to Office of Government Ethics.

This ban even applies to volunteers for temporary organizations that the federal government creates, A separate federal law says. It would have applied for Mr. Musk, even before he took on a more formal role as a special employee of the government.

The Ban would also limit Mr. Musk’s ability to intervene with federal agencies on behalf of any of his businesses if he has worked on the same agency in his capacity as a special employee of the government.

The law requires Mr. Musk, even as a special employee of the government, submits an economic publication that describes all his assets and sources of income. The report would probably remain confidential if Mr. Musk was not paid for his work and it was a temporary post.

Who decides whether the rules are followed?

Typically, it is up to the federal government’s ethical officials – and potentially prosecutors – to investigate whether a federal employee has incorrectly taken steps to a particular case that benefits family financial possessions.

Can Mr. Musk get waived these rules?

Special government employees may be awarded an exemption from the ban on the interests of a federal federal official who helps to oversee the work.

But Mr. Musk would have to “receive in advance a written decision made by such an official that interest is not so significant that it is considered to be likely to influence the integrity of the services that the government can expect from such officer or employee, ” The law says.

If Mr. Musk only now will have this status two weeks after the start of the new administration-evaluated his actions may also be the federal criminal interest in interest, given the work he has already done, said Norman Eisen, who served as an ethical lawyer In the White House under the Obama administration and which has also been a frequent critic of Mr. Trump. The grips do not cover actions taken until they were issued.

Mr. Musk could too Get an exception “When the financial interest is too distant or insignificant to influence the integrity of an employee’s service.”

Officials in the White House refused to say about Mr. Musk had been issued an exception. In most cases, federal law requires that any exception be published. The White House has not answered requests to release a copy of exception awarded to Mr. Musk.

Walter Shaub, the former Director of the Office of Government Ethics, said Mr. Musk and Trump administration can try to claim that Mr. Musk is so wealthy that his conflicts associated with pending financial affairs are trivial for comparison. Therefore, they would not “affect the integrity of the services” he provides the federal government as a special government employee.

But Mr. Shaub said it was not a proper use of the law.

“They will try to argue if they issue him an exception that he is too rich to be destroyed,” Mr. Shaub, which was critical of Mr. Trump during his first period. “But the problem with this argument is that it is a statement that the wealthy is over the Criminal Code.”

Is Mr. Musk in the clear if he was exempted?

Mr. Eisen said that even though Mr. Musk is now appointed as a special government employee and received an exception at the right time, it did not remove ethics and legal problems.

Mr. Musk’s commitment to federal government operations seems to have been so extensive in recent weeks that it goes far beyond the traditional definition of a special government employee, Mr. Eisen.

“I don’t think what he’s doing is in line with the limited definition of what a special government employee should be,” said Mr. Eisen.

Besides, he said, is Mr. Musk’s economic interests across the federal government so broad that any exemption would also be difficult to justify.