As part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a former Tesla employee has been installed as a senior adviser to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, records shared with The Intercept show.
Tarak Makecha, who previously worked at Elon Musk’s electric car company, now has roles at both the FBI and the Justice Department’s Justice Management Division, according to staff lists.
At the FBI, the records show Makecha is a “senior advisor” to the agency’s executive assistant director for human resources. At the Justice Management Division, he is listed as an “advisor” to the office of the chief information officer, which oversees IT and cybersecurity for the department.
According to a DOJ source, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, Makecha’s work at the Justice Department has focused in part on the department’s grant-making operations, which DOGE recently leveraged to target a criminal justice nonprofit.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Musk’s DOGE squad has swept through federal agencies swiftly, gutting targets like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and gaining access to sensitive data systems at the Social Security Administration and IRS.
Musk has entrusted this work to a secretive crew, whose members often have ties to his own private ventures, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X. The records shared with The Intercept fill in gaps about Makecha and two other DOGE operatives assigned to the Justice Department, where their aim remains unknown.
Makecha, the FBI, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment.
Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Makecha has reportedly worked for DOGE at other federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, the State Department, and the Office of Personnel Management.
Until January, he worked as chief financial officer for a drone detection technology company, according to his LinkedIn profile. From 2017 to 2019, Makecha worked in various role in Tesla’s Bay Area offices, most recently as head of strategic planning for Tesla Energy.
The DOJ source told The Intercept that Makecha likely started working at DOJ at the end of March, focusing at least partly on the Office of Justice Programs — one of the DOJ’s grant-making components.
Earlier this month, DOGE targeted one of the Justice Department’s nonprofit grantees: the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice reform group. Two DOGE staffers — Nate Cavanaugh, previously a tech entrepreneur, and Justin Aimonetti, one of several attorneys working for DOGE — demanded a meeting “to discuss getting a DOGE team assigned” to the Vera Institute, according to emails released by the nonprofit.
During a 20-minute phone call, the DOGE duo explained a plan to install DOGE teams at “every institute or agency that has congressional monies appropriated to it,” according to the Vera Institute. DOGE backed down after the Vera Institute explained that the Justice Department had recently terminated all of the Vera Institute’s grants. The Vera Institute apparently also had to explain to DOGE’s attorney the difference between nonprofit entities established by Congress and nonprofits like it that simply receive federal funding through grants.
Agency records do not list either Cavanaugh or Aimonetti as DOJ employees. The Vera Institute said Makecha was not on any of the calls or emails its staff had with DOGE.
Makecha is only the second DOGE staffer identified at the FBI and the third identified at any Justice Department component.
Records shared with The Intercept confirm that a former SpaceX security director, Justin Monroe, is also detailed from DOGE to the FBI’s human resources branch, as has previously been reported.
But the DOJ records also list Monroe as “counsel” within the attorney general’s office, which has not been reported. It’s a seemingly odd title, according to the DOJ source, because Monroe’s background is in security and cyberwarfare, and The Intercept was unable to find any record that Monroe has a law license or legal training.
The records also confirm that another DOGE staffer, Christopher Stanley — whose online profiles still list him as an active employee at both X and SpaceX — has a role at the Justice Department within the deputy attorney general’s office, where he is a “senior advisor,” according to Reuters. On Inauguration Day, Stanley was “boots on the ground” to help January 6 defendants get released following Trump’s sweeping pardon. Monroe and Stanley did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s inquiries either.
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