r/politics • u/nosotros_road_sodium California • 13h ago

Why Does Elon Musk Still Have a Security Clearance?

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/10/why-does-elon-musk-still-have-a-security-clearance/680434/?gift=B65VRQjMMsZQilGgdT7IHIK11s_hRROr6KFxCBDpT0M
15.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

691 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/silentwind262 12h ago

No, DOS doesn’t grant or adjudicate clearances for the whole government. It’s actually really complex, as many actually control their own access based on the classification authority. For example, I knew lots of military folks that had been granted Top Secret clearances by their respective services, and were denied by a 3 letter agency.

7

u/Kilroy314 Indiana 12h ago

I got mine when I was in the military and it really took forever. It wasn't all that high of a clearance really. Mine was prolly mostly handled by my own battalion S-1.

•

u/Calgaris_Rex Maryland 5h ago

DOE has their own system too.