So Elon Musk works for the government. That comes with obligations.

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In November, I wrote an opinion piece published by the Minnesota Star Tribune asking the Trump transition team to specify whether Elon Musk is an employee of the U.S. government subject to its conflict-of-interest rules, or an outside adviser. After months of waffling on that issue, and after Musk led multiple raids on federal agencies during the first two weeks by the Trump administration, the White House finally gave its answer: Musk is in fact a federal employee. He is a part-time “special government employee,” but he is a federal employee.

As a “special government employee,” Musk is likely the second most powerful person in the executive branch (apologies to Vice President JD Vance). Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has nearly shut down USAID, has obtained taxpayer financial information from the Treasury Department payments systems and has promised to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

And it appears that Musk could be benefiting financially through some of what DOGE is doing, including its efforts to dismantle the CFPB. Tesla, like other car manufactures, finances consumer car loans that are regulated by CFPB — at least until Musk dismantles it. Musk is also enhancing X with a digital payment platform, a type of consumer finance vehicle also regulated by CFPB, if it still exists.

The CFPB is an important federal agency founded in 2010 after fraudulent mortgage lending contributed to the financial collapse of 2008. Since its founding, it has returned billions of dollars to consumers defrauded by unscrupulous lenders and purveyors of financial services. DOGE’s efforts to shut down the CFPB are dangerous and will lead to more illegal foreclosures, car repossessions, illicit undisclosed fees on digital payment platforms and other scams on American consumers.

On Feb. 6, Musk’s employees — presumably DOGE employees but nobody knows for sure — reportedly entered CFPB headquarters seeking access to sensitive CFPB information, including staff records, industry data and personally identifiable consumer information. The next day, Musk tweeted “CFPB RIP.”

It’s not clear whether these DOGE employees entering CFPB and other federal agencies are also employees of the Executive Office of the President, are employees of federal agencies or are private contractors. Their status — and whether they have undergone any background checks — must be clarified.

Musk is not only dismantling the agency that is supposed to regulate X’s digital wallet — DOGE is gaining access to confidential corporate data of X’s competitors. The CFPB has obtained from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and other companies proprietary information on their payment system plans.

DOGE employees — and perhaps Musk — now have access to this proprietary corporate information. It’s not clear how, and for whose benefit, it will be used.

Federal law prohibits this type of conflict of interest: 18 U.S. Code Section 208 is a criminal statute that applies to all executive branch officers and employee, including special government employees.

The only exceptions are the president and the vice president. (Members of Congress are also exempt, allowing some of them to make a lot of money in the stock market.) But it would be a crime for Musk to participate in any federal government matter that he knows would affect his own financial interests. Under the statute Musk must either divest from his ownership of companies regulated by CFPB or recuse from DOGE’s attempt to curtail the work of CFPB. Same for DOGE’s work intruding upon, and in some cases dismantling, other federal agencies.

President Donald Trump has already made it clear that he will not allow a conflict of interest, so there presumably will be no waiver of Musk’s conflicts of interest under the statute. The White House has also claimed that if Musk “comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then [he] will excuse himself.” Americans need to hold the administration to that promise. It’s the law.

Furthermore, the public should know if Musk has any business dealings with foreign governments or entities controlled by foreign governments. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, applies to Musk because he has an office of trust under the United States. This financial conflict of interest is so important that the founders applied is to everyone holding a position of trust with the United States, including even the president. If Musk has been doing business with entities controlled by foreign governments, he needs to stop.

We all want efficiency in our government, and it is possible, perhaps even probable, that DOGE will bring much needed business common sense to government and make it more efficient. But financial conflicts of interest aren’t efficient; they drive up the cost of government and make it ineffective. Government regulation, or deregulation, that financially benefits government decisionmakers costs us money. And financial conflicts of interest are illegal. Musk and DOGE can make our government more efficient, but they must also comply with the law.

Richard Painter is a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He served as the White House’s chief ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration from 2005 to 2007.