Musk’s former top engineer in US Justice Department under scrutiny over hacking history

A former top employee of billionaire Elon Musk, now working in the U.S. Department of Justice, has been linked to past activities involving hacking and the distribution of pirated software.

Christopher Stanley, a 33-year-old engineer with a history at Musk’s social media company X and space company SpaceX, currently serves as a senior advisor in the Deputy Attorney General’s office, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media. 

His appointment was confirmed by a former Justice Department official and a staff directory listing. Stanley was reportedly assigned there during his tenure with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative set up by former President Donald Trump to reduce federal bureaucracy. While Musk has claimed that DOGE is exceptionally transparent, the department’s staff and their responsibilities have remained largely unclear to the public.

Stanley has a long history in the online world, having run various websites and forums since 2006, when he was just 15 years old, as shown by data from DomainTools, an internet intelligence firm. Several of these platforms were involved in distributing pirated ebooks, bootleg software, and video game cheats, as confirmed by archived copies stored by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

The posts on these forums from Stanley, some dating back to when he was 19, show him boasting about his hacking activities. He even spoke of hacking into websites, although he claimed to have left that world behind. However, a YouTube video posted by Stanley in 2014 revealed his involvement in a data breach, which affected customer data from a rival hacker group when he was 23.

When asked for comment, the Justice Department did not directly address Stanley’s current role or past actions but confirmed that he holds an active security clearance that predated his employment at DOGE. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi expressed "full trust and confidence" in Stanley's ability to contribute to the federal government. Neither Stanley, SpaceX, nor X responded to requests for comment.

In the hours following Reuters’ inquiries, several of Stanley’s old websites were removed from the Internet Archive. Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, declined to comment on the removal but noted that owners of websites have the right to request that their content be excluded from the archive.

Opinions on Stanley’s past varied among national security professionals. Six former Justice Department officials raised concerns about his background, particularly regarding his previous disclosure of data obtained through seemingly illegal means. Jonathan Rusch, a former Justice Department prosecutor, voiced serious reservations, stressing the risks of granting someone with such a past access to sensitive federal records.

Conversely, Dan Guido, from the digital security firm Trail of Bits, was more lenient, suggesting that Stanley’s youthful indiscretions and his focus on targeting other hackers could be considered as mitigating factors.

The specific nature of Stanley’s responsibilities at the Justice Department remains unclear, as does whether he continues his roles at SpaceX and X. Despite listing his position with these companies on LinkedIn, Stanley makes no mention of his work with the Justice Department.

Stanley’s past involvement in piracy, video game cheats, and hacking is not unique within Musk’s DOGE team, as other members have also faced scrutiny over their backgrounds. Just last week, Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer, was reported by Reuters to have provided network infrastructure to cybercriminals, prompting calls for a full investigation into the backgrounds of those working for the controversial department. Coristine has yet to respond to media inquiries.

By Aghakazim Guliyev