Investigative reporter Lauren McGaughy at Austin’s NPR affiliate (KUT) and The Texas Newsroom is reporting on the influence of Elon Musk in the Texas Capitol. (Musk recently left California and moved his Tesla, SpaceX, and X headquarters to Austin, Texas.)
McGaughy wrote on X: “As part of my effort to track @ElonMusk’s influence in the Texas Capitol, I asked for all of his emails with Gov. Greg Abbott for the last several months. Abbott’s office rejected my request, saying some of the records are too ‘intimate and embarrassing’ to release.”
Note: McGaughy said “Abbott’s office charged me $244 to search for his comms with #ElonMusk. They said it would take 13 hours of staff time. But after the check was cashed, Abbott’s office told me they determined all of the records were private.”
NEW: As part of my effort to track @ElonMusk‘s influence in the Texas Capitol, I asked for all of his emails with Gov. Greg Abbott for the last several months.
Abbott’s office rejected my request, saying some of the records are too “intimate and embarrassing” to release. #txlege
— Lauren McGaughy (@lmcgaughy) July 14, 2025
She added: “Abbott’s office could have redacted his emails with #ElonMusk. They could have released some and withheld others. Instead, they said none of them could be released. Ken Paxton’s office, which referees public records disputes, will decide whether I get the records.”
With a link to her full article for KUT, McGaughy wrote: “A lawyer for @SpaceX also doesn’t want the emails with Gov. Abbott released. He cited just one main reason: They contain ‘commercial information whose disclosure would cause SpaceX substantial competitive harm.’”
McGaughy’s reporting also quotes Bill Aleshire, a “Texas-based attorney specializing in public records law” who found the lack of transparency disturbing but cited a recent Texas Supreme Court decision that “narrows the public’s legal options to challenge Texas officials under the state’s open records law” which makes it more difficult to get access to records like the Musk-Abbott correspondence, even though there is a legitimate claim that the correspondence contains information in the public interest.
(NOTE: The Texas Supreme Court decision protected Abbott and Texas AG Ken Paxton from having to reveal emails related to the tragic Uvalde shooting on January 6.)
Aleshire is an admitted Musk critic who reluctantly credited the the Tesla boss for being “right on part of the issue” when he came out against MAGA’s “big, beautiful bill” — but who says, talking about Musk, that he “detest(s) the idea that in Our USA Democratic Republic a Billionaire—any Billionaire—could buy an election of those I’d support or oppose.”
I’m conflicted in how to process this:https://t.co/b6Njue3gd6@elonmusk is right on part of the issue—Trillions more in national debt is INSANE, LOCO, Сумасшедший, БЕЗУМИЕ, VERRÜCKT, पागल .
But I detest the idea that in Our USA Democratic Republic a Billionaire—any…
— Bill Aleshire (@AleshireLaw) July 1, 2025