Fraud Robert Reich Feb 12 Friends, The Trump-Musk regime is accusing federal civil servants of fraud, based on no evidence, while at the same time allowing corporations to pay off foreign officials, dropping bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams, pardoning a former governor of Illinois who tried to sell his Senate seat, and stopping investigations into foreign influence-peddling in the United States. In other words, Trump-Musk have declared open season on real fraud and bribery. On Monday evening, Trump signed an executive order halting investigations and prosecutions of corporate corruption in foreign countries under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. Today, Musk held forth in the Oval Office, claiming that drastic reductions in the federal workforce were justified because it was rife with fraud. I’ve spent more than a dozen years in the federal government, and I can tell you that the vast majority of civil servants I’ve had the honor of working with are dedicated and hard-working. They are delivering critical services to Americans and protecting them from corporate malfeasance. For the richest person in the world to be given a bully-pulpit in the Oval Office to impugn their integrity is beyond shameful. Musk has the integrity of a slug. Since Trump was elected president, Musk’s fortune has increased $270 billion. If you think that’s an accident, you haven’t been paying attention. When Trump was sworn into office, Musk’s six corporations were under more than 32 continuing investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies, according to a review by The New York Times. Most of these cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the agencies that initiated them are being defanged by Musk and Trump. Which means Musk’s corporations are worth far more because they are no longer restrained by the government. And as their major shareholder, Musk is the big winner. The cases against Musk and his corporations include a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit accusing Musk and his corporations of violating federal securities laws and a lawsuit by the Federal Aviation Administration accusing him and his rocket company, Space X, of violating worker safety. When SpaceX’s Starship exploded in January, raining debris over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the rocket program and ordered an investigation — latest in a series of moves by the agency against SpaceX. “Safety drives everything we do at the FAA,” the agency’s chief counsel said after proposing $633,000 in fines for alleged violations related to two previous launches. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.” Musk accused the agency of engaging in “lawfare” and threatened to sue it for “regulatory overreach.” “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk wrote on X. While it’s unclear what changes Musk has in store for the FAA, current and former employees expect him to focus on the part of the agency that regulates his rocket company: the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST. When Trump took office, the National Labor Relations Board had undertaken 24 separate investigations into Musk’s corporations for violating workers’ rights. But Trump has fired three officials at that agency, including a board member — effectively stopping the agency’s ability to rule on cases. Presto, Musk and his corporations are free. Trump administration officials have also cut back scrutiny of foreign influence efforts aimed at the United States and replaced the top career Justice Department official handling corruption cases. Who knows how many investigations of Musk’s global enterprises might have been closed? All we know for sure is that Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, who’s accusing federal civil servants of fraud, whose young minions now have access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, and whom Trump has authorized to make draconian reductions in the federal workforce, will make tens of billions more. This is what oligarchy looks like.