According to new reports, last month, top Pentagon officials were putting together a briefing for Elon Musk on over two dozen highly classified weapons systems for combating China when the department’s top lawyer stepped in.
According to the persons, Acting Pentagon General Counsel Charles Young discovered that a report being prepared to present Musk had details on 29 “special access programs” pertaining to China, which are a term for the military’s most classified secrets.
Young asked a top staffer to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was in Japan, if the secretary had given his approval to tell the rich businessman about China’s ambitions.
However, the internal misunderstanding on whether Musk would be informed about the initiatives reveals chaos at the Pentagon’s highest levels during the beginning of Hegseth’s leadership.
It also contradicts claims that there were no intentions to give Musk critical information on China.
Musk’s March 21 visit to the Pentagon to meet with Hegseth and top military officials served as the basis for the preparations to notify him about special access programs.
Whether the memo was being prepared for that meeting is unclear. After Trump found out about it through the media, the plan to provide him with a top-secret briefing on China that day was abandoned.
Requests for comment were not answered by the Pentagon or Musk’s spokesperson.
At the time, Pentagon officials stated that Musk would never have a classified meeting on China.
According to some officials, Hegseth ordered employees to put together the report on Musk’s special access programs.
Others, however, said that Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg’s office aides were preparing the briefing when Young essentially shut it down because they misinterpreted a Hegseth command.
In general special access projects, or SAPs, are extremely secret technology initiatives that frequently involve weapons. Small groups of persons who have a need to know are typically the only ones who are aware of these programs.
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