Yellen Sees 'No Basis' to Investigate Musk's Purchase of Twitter, Report Says
Days after President Joe Biden said the U.S. may investigate billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for national security reasons, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she sees “no basis” for doing so, CBS reported Nov. 15. Yellen told CBS that she wasn’t “sure precisely what [the president] had in mind, but we are -- we have really no basis -- to the best of my knowledge -- to examine his finances of his company. I'm not aware of concerns that would cause us” to investigate. Yellen’s comments came less than a month after Bloomberg reported that the administration was weighing whether it should subject the deal to a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (see 2210210018).
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Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who asked CFIUS to review the purchase (see 2210310046), said he doesn’t “understand” Yellen’s decision. “CFIUS is designed to review transactions like this,” Murphy said in a Nov. 15 tweet. “We need to ask: Why did the Saudis partner with Musk on this purchase? Why didn't they take their $$ out like other owners? What access do they have to data? What say do they have on content?” Murphy had argued that CFIUS could exercise its jurisdiction over the deal because of foreign investors in Musk’s consortium, which includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.