Elon Musk has gained a powerful new ally amid claims that members of his Department of Government Efficiency are being threatened and harassed.
Ed Martin, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, reached out to the SpaceX CEO on Monday, vowing to take legal action against anyone who tries to sabotage the department’s shakeup of the federal government.
‘We must keep all our American government employees safe and we must protect the American people’s property. Anyone imperiling others [is] violating our laws,’ Martin said, without specifying which laws have been broken.
‘I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers,’ Martin told Musk. ‘Any threats, confrontations or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws.
‘Let me assure you of this: We will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people,’ he continued.
‘We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city.
‘We will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what,’ Martin said.
The letter comes after WIRED Magazine released the identifies of six software engineers that work for the new department – prompting online hate.
Some netizens even reportedly called for the engineers’ addresses to be doxxed, with at least one person saying they ‘should be looking over their shoulders.’
‘They need to understand that this is now a war. And in war, there are costs for being the enemy,’ another commented, according to screengrabs posted online, while a third suggested, ‘Let’s drag their necks up by a large coil of rope.’
Some DOGE and State Department representatives were also barred from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters on Friday night and threatened to call the US Marshals if they were not given entry.
Musk has claimed that those interfering with DOGE’s efforts have ‘broken the law,’ and Martin agreed.
In a separate statement on the US Attorney of DC’s X account, Martin claimed: ‘Our initial review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees.
‘We are in contact with the FBI and other law enforcement partners to proceed rapidly,’ he claimed. ‘We also have our prosecutors preparing.’
Martin then quoted the statement from his own office and added, ‘See something, say something.’
President Donald Trump appointed Martin as a prosecutor shortly after he returned to office last month.
Martin had previously been a prominent supporter of the Stop the Steal movement that claimed fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
He also represented three rioters who were charged in connection with the January 6 Capital riot, which he said in an old post was ‘like Mardi Gras.’
Then, when he assumed his new role in Washington DC, Martin dismissed some 30 federal prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases and ordered a probe of prosecutors who were linked to the Capital riots.
In response to his efforts to prosecute anyone who threatens the DOGE employees, Musk simply wrote: ‘Thank you, receipt via X acknowledged.’
Meanwhile, his department is continuing its onslaught of the federal government.
On Monday, Brian Bjelde, a top DOGE lieutenant, informed senior staff at the Office of Personnel Management to plan for the loss of 70 percent of internal staff, according to CNN.
OPM leaders were ordered to prepare for an initial 30 percent reduction, which would ultimately grow to 70 percent, according to reports.
Musk has also warned that it is ‘time’ for USAID ‘to die’ in a post on X, calling the agency a ‘criminal organization.’
At the same time, the DOGE subcommittee called on PBS and NPR to testify on Capitol Hill to defend the government funding they use to share ‘systematically biased content.’
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the DOGE subcommittee chair, said that the department plans to address its concerns about the station’s ‘blatantly ideological and partisan coverage’ at the hearing, scheduled for either the week of March 3 or March 24.