Musk Documentary Examines DOGE Data Access Questions

Alex Gibney's Musk documentary examines Elon Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency, election-related claims, and concerns about federal data access through interviews and archival material.

The film, released in theaters nationwide, includes messages involving Musk and former right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair. St. Clair said Musk told her before Election Day 2024 that he felt "optimistic" because of an upcoming event.

Musk's message referenced "tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix." When asked about the meaning, the film says Musk pointed to "lasers from space," adding "I have over 10,000 lasers in space right now."

Gibney said he could not determine whether Musk was making a claim or misleading a romantic partner. He shared his theory about what the messages may have referred to.

"If I was to hazard a guess," director Alex Gibney said.

Gibney said he believed the issue may have involved vote reporting information rather than changing votes. He described possible access to online voting system data.

"it had to do with not the switching of votes, but with the reporting of votes, and that he knew sooner than anybody else did because, you know, out of the voting systems, there are things that appear on the internet, and if you know how to hack into them, you can get real-time data." Alex Gibney said.

Gibney then repeated his uncertainty about the explanation he offered for the messages.

"So if I was to hazard a guess, that would be it." Alex Gibney said.

The documentary also reviews Musk's leadership of Tesla, SpaceX and other technology ventures, while examining criticism of Tesla's self-driving technology and Musk's political activity.

The film discusses allegations about Musk's views on population growth and includes claims involving women who have children with him, including the term "breeders," attributed to someone "on Elon’s side" by ex-wife Justine Musk.

It also explores Musk's political shift and questions about his involvement with DOGE, which was created to reduce government spending and address "waste, fraud and abuse" of federal tax dollars.

The documentary highlights DOGE staffers' access to government systems and information. Gibney described the level of access granted to staff members as a significant concern.

"discomforting" Alex Gibney said, describing concerns about DOGE's access.

Gibney said "one of the things we know about DOGE is that these kids knew next to nothing about the agencies they went into."

The director said DOGE workers gained broad access to government data systems, including sensitive information held across agencies.

"But they knew a lot about how to access data. And within a day or two of entering those agencies, they had what’s called ‘super admin’ status, and they could access data across these silos that contain classified information, that contain all sorts of personal information about us. And that’s never happened before, to have that kind of breadth of access across the federal government," Alex Gibney said.

Executive producer Ronan Farrow raised concerns about the handling of Americans' private information during DOGE's tenure.

"One troubling aspect of the DOGE tenure" Ronan Farrow said.