Johnson pledges to investigate SpaceX deal if elected attorney general
Johnson, a state senator who won the Democratic primary runoff for attorney general, told the Dallas Morning News that the grants awarded to SpaceX’s Starlink program bore the appearance of corruption. He called the awards “lopsided,” saying the vast majority of available grant funding went to a single company, according to the Guardian.
“I am not declaring that corruption was at work in this instance. I am saying that it sure looks like it,” Johnson told the newspaper, the Guardian reported.
Johnson’s comments put an investigation into Musk’s Texas business dealings directly on the November ballot. Earlier, at a legislative hearing in Austin, Johnson had raised concerns about the broadband grant process. “I’m concerned about wasting taxpayer money,” he said at the hearing, according to Houston Public Media. He added: “It is relevant that at the time period in question, a guy named Elon Musk who owns SpaceX, that owns Starlink, has tremendous control over the federal government.”
The Texas broadband development office testified during those hearings that changes to the grant-awarding rules came at the request of Abbott’s office, Houston Public Media reported. Critics described the rule changes as favoring Starlink over ground-based fiber internet providers. Supporters of the new policy said it could allow grant money to go further, Houston Public Media reported.
Johnson’s pledge to investigate the Starlink grants puts the question before voters in November. His Republican opponent is state Sen. Mayes Middleton, who the Guardian reported has declared himself a Trump loyalist.