Senior DOJ Advisor And Ex-Elon Musk Employee Reportedly Suspected Of Past Cybercrimes: Pam Bondi Expresses 'Full Trust And Confidence' In Him

A senior advisor at the U.S. Justice Department (DoJ), previously employed at Elon Musk‘s companies, has been implicated in hacking and distributing pirated software.

What Happened: A 33-year-old engineer, Christopher Stanley, who has served at Musk’s social media firm X and space-launch company SpaceX, is currently a senior advisor in the Deputy Attorney General’s office. Stanley is suspected to have operated a network of websites and forums since 2006, disseminating pirated ebooks, unauthorized software, and video game cheats, as reported by Reuters.

Stanley has reportedly bragged about hacking into websites on at least two forums, as indicated by archived posts. A 2014 YouTube video he uploaded indicates his participation in a customer data breach from a competing hacking group.

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Despite Stanley’s questionable past, the Justice Department confirmed that he holds an active security clearance, which he obtained before joining DOGE. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi expressed “full trust and confidence in Chris' ability to help the federal government.”

However, six former Justice officials expressed concern to Reuters about Stanley’s background, given the department’s handling of sensitive information, including details from the federal investigation and other information protected under grand jury secrecy rules.

Several of Stanley’s old websites vanished from the Internet Archive following Reuters’ contact with Stanley, the report said.

Why It Matters: On LinkedIn, Stanley continues to list himself as an employee of Musk’s companies without mentioning his work with the Justice Department. Stanley, like Musk, is mentioned as a “special government employee” and is not drawing a government salary, according to the DOJ.

This news comes on the heels of a report from March, which linked Edward Coristine, a member of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team, to a cybercrime group.

Furthermore, a massive data breach at X was reported earlier this week, exposing the data of over 200 million users, as per another report. These incidents raise serious questions about the security practices and personnel vetting processes at Musk’s companies.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.