{"id":56093,"date":"2025-11-19T12:45:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/56093\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T12:45:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:45:23","slug":"gov-abbotts-office-redacts-hundreds-of-pages-of-emails-about-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/56093\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Abbott’s office redacts hundreds of pages of emails about Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is co-published with\u00a0ProPublica<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Texas Tribune<\/a>\u00a0as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded in Texas.<\/p>\n

Got something you want us to investigate? Email us at tips@kut.org.<\/p>\n

Months after fighting to keep secret the emails<\/a> exchanged between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>\u2019s office and tech billionaire Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s companies, state officials released nearly 1,400 pages to The Texas Newsroom.<\/p>\n

The records, however, reveal little about the two men\u2019s relationship or Musk\u2019s influence over state government. In fact, all but about 200 of the pages are entirely blacked out.<\/p>\n

Of those that were readable, many were either already public or provided minimal information. They included old incorporation records for Musk\u2019s rocket company SpaceX<\/a>, a couple of agendas<\/a> for the governor\u2019s committee on aerospace and aviation, emails<\/a> regarding a state grant awarded to SpaceX and an application<\/a> from a then-Musk employee to sit on a state commission.<\/p>\n

One is an invitation<\/a> to happy hour. Another is a reminder<\/a> of the next SpaceX launch.<\/p>\n

The documents were provided in response to a public records request by The Texas Newsroom, which asked Abbott\u2019s office for communications with Musk and the businessman\u2019s employees dating back to last fall. Abbott\u2019s and Musk\u2019s lawyers fought their release, arguing they would reveal trade secrets, potentially \u201cintimate and embarrassing\u201d<\/a> exchanges or confidential legal and policymaking discussions.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s spokesperson, Andrew Mahaleris, said the governor\u2019s office \u201crigorously complies with the Texas Public Information Act and releases any responsive information that is determined to not be confidential or excepted from disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open government experts say the limited disclosure is emblematic of a larger transparency problem in Texas. They pointed to a 2015 state Supreme Court decision<\/a> that allowed companies to oppose the release of records by arguing that they contain \u201ccompetitively sensitive\u201d information. The ruling, experts said, made it harder to obtain records documenting interactions between governments and private companies.<\/p>\n

Tom Leatherbury, who directs the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University\u2019s Dedman School of Law, said companies took advantage of the ruling. Among the most prominent examples of the ruling\u2019s effect on transparency was McAllen’s refusal to disclose<\/a> how much money was spent to lure pop star Enrique Iglesias to the city for a concert. The city argued that such disclosures would hurt its ability to negotiate with artists for future performances. Eventually, it was revealed that Iglesias was paid nearly half a million dollars.<\/p>\n

The problem has been exacerbated, Leatherbury added, by the fact that the Office of the Attorney General, which referees public records disputes, does not have the power to investigate whether the records that companies want to withhold actually contain trade secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorporations are willing to assert that information is confidential, commercial information, and more governmental bodies are willing not to second-guess the company\u2019s assertion,\u201d Leatherbury said. (Leatherbury has performed pro bono legal work for The Texas Newsroom.)<\/p>\n

Musk and his companies\u2019 representatives did not respond to questions about the records.<\/p>\n

One of the richest people in the world, Musk has invested heavily in Texas. He\u2019s relocated many of his businesses\u2019 headquarters<\/a> to the state and hired lobbyists<\/a> who successfully pushed for several new laws that will benefit his companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As part of an effort to track Musk\u2019s clout in the state Capitol, The Texas Newsroom on April 20 asked Abbott\u2019s office for communications with employees from four of the businessman\u2019s companies: SpaceX, car manufacturer Tesla<\/a>, the social media site X and Neuralink, which specializes in brain nanotechnology.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office said it would cost $244.64 to review the documents, which The Texas Newsroom paid. After the check was cashed, lawyers representing Abbott\u2019s office and SpaceX each sought to keep the records secret.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s lawyer sent a letter<\/a> to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dated June 26, saying that publicly releasing the emails would hurt its competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s public information coordinator, Matthew Taylor, also asked Paxton\u2019s office<\/a> for permission to withhold the documents, arguing they included private exchanges with lawyers, details about policymaking decisions and information that would reveal how the state entices companies to invest here. Taylor said some of the records were protected under an exception to public records laws known as \u201ccommon-law privacy\u201d because they consisted of \u201cinformation that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Releasing the Musk emails, he said, would have a \u201cchilling effect on the frank and open discussion necessary for the decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Paxton\u2019s office mostly sided with Abbott and Musk. In a Aug. 11<\/a> opinion, Assistant Attorney General Erin Groff wrote that many of the documents could be withheld. Groff, however, ordered the release of some records determined to be \u201ceither not highly intimate or embarrassing\u201d or of \u201clegitimate public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, the governor\u2019s office released 1,374 pages of records, the vast majority of which were completely redacted.<\/p>\n

Some records included a note that appeared to explain why. A note on page 401<\/a>, for example, cited the exemption for competitive bidding records for 974 redacted pages. Names and emails of Musk\u2019s employees were also removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that a governmental body can redact more than 1,000 pages of documents that are directly related to a major business\u2019s activities in Texas is certainly problematic,\u201d said Reid Pillifant, an attorney specializing in public records and media law.<\/p>\n

He and other experts said such hurdles are becoming more common as legislation and court decisions have weakened the state\u2019s public records laws.<\/p>\n

Four years after the 2015 Supreme Court decision, legislators passed a new law that was meant to ensure the release of basic information about government deals with private businesses. But open government experts said the law did not go far enough to restore transparency, adding that some local governments are still objecting to the release<\/a> of contract information.<\/p>\n

Moreover, lawmakers continue to add carve-outs to what qualifies as public information every legislative session. Just this year, for example, legislators added the following exceptions to public records and open meetings laws: information relating to how government entities detect and deter fraud<\/a> and discussions during public government meetings about certain military and aerospace issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even with the increasing challenges of accessing public records, Leatherbury and Pillifant were stumped by the governor\u2019s decision to release thousands of pages only to black them out fully. Leatherbury said that the governor\u2019s office may have wanted to show the volume of records responsive to the request.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted you to see what little you could get in the context of the entire document, even though that\u2019s kind of meaningless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Texas Newsroom has asked the Office of the Attorney General to reconsider its decision and order the release of the Musk emails. There is little other recourse to challenge the outcome.<\/p>\n

If a member of the public believes a government agency is violating the law, they can try to sue. But the experts noted that a recent Texas Supreme Court decision<\/a> made it more difficult to enforce the public records law against the governor and other executive officers. Now, Leatherbury said, it\u2019s not clear how challenging such a records decision would work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Texas citizen should care about access to these kinds of records because they shed light on how our public officials are making big decisions that affect the land where people live and how their taxpayer dollars are being spent,\u201d Pillifant said.<\/p>\n

Lauren McGaughy is a journalist with The Texas Newsroom<\/a>, a collaboration among NPR and the public radio stations in Texas. She is based at KUT News in Austin. Reach her at lmcgaughy@kut.org<\/a>. Sign up for KUT newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is co-published with\u00a0ProPublica\u00a0and\u00a0The Texas Tribune\u00a0as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11193,8892,30594,5055,392,11194,4514,30595,30596,30597,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-56093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-elon","9":"tag-elon-musk","10":"tag-foia","11":"tag-governor","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-musk","14":"tag-public-records","15":"tag-redact","16":"tag-redacted","17":"tag-redaction","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-texas-headlines","20":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}