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“…
Two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis, were present at the “E meeting.” These three men— Armstrong, Akis, and Davis—appeared to be the people in charge, Lavingia claims.
“Steven is basically like a chief of staff or body man when Elon was there,” he says.
Akis, the co-founder and president of venture capital firm Human Capital, is a long-time Musk associate. He is not a US citizen. In February, the Atlantic reported that Trump advisers had prevented Musk from hiring Akis into DOGE because he was born in Turkey, but has a green card. U.S. legal regulations, the Atlantic noted, generally do not allow for non-Americans to be employed by the government.
Lavingia says, however, that Akis was the person who helped bring him into DOGE, messaging let him know that he would be assigned to work at the VA and connecting him with the DOGE team lead for the agency.
Akis did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment and WIRED was not able to review messages between Lavingia and Akis. The Atlantic noted in their February report that Akis also did not respond to their request for comment.
In a live recording with the All-In Podcastearlier this month, Antonio Gracias, another Musk ally and a known DOGE affiliate, appeared to confirm Akis’s presence, and said that “Baris and Emily do the recruiting” for DOGE. (Lavingia could not confirm who the mention of “Emily” referred to in the podcast.)…”