‘Somebody is lying here’: Schiff challenges Trump, Musk over conflicting Starlink claims
WASHINGTON, DC: The controversy surrounding the slowdown of Starlink in Ukraine is deepening, as Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff has called out conflicting statements by President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The California senator also said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should face questions from the Senate over the issue.
Adam Schiff calls out conflicting claims on Starlink
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff appeared on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Oct 25, where he questioned conflicting accounts from Trump, Musk, who owns SpaceX, the company that operates Starlink, and Zelenskyy, saying “somebody is lying.”
The Trump administration, Musk and Ukraine have offered different accounts of what led to the restrictions. The controversy began when Zelenskyy said the decision to limit Starlink’s speed came from the US government.
Musk said SpaceX was enforcing its own terms of service, , while also maintaining that the US government controls changes to Starshield, Starlink’s military-grade counterpart. This contrasted with his earlier statement that Starshield’s speed or usage limits are decided by the US military and ultimately the president.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that President Donald Trump called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of the satellite service.
“You’ve got the president saying one thing, you’ve got Elon Musk saying another thing, you have them both saying different things at different times,” Schiff said.
“Somebody is lying here. Maybe they’re all lying in different ways, but we need to find out.”
Hegseth should face Senate questions over Starlink limits in Ukraine
Sen. Adam Schiff said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should testify before the Senate about the Starlink satellite restrictions that disrupted Ukrainian military operations.
Schiff told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that if Democrats retake the Senate, “Defense Secretary Hegseth should be brought in. Anyone who has knowledge of what happened.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that the Ukrainian government believed the decision to limit Starlink’s speed came from the US government.
“It was the message from the American government to limit this speed, and technically SpaceX did it,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine said Saturday, Oct 24, that Starlink and Starshield had returned to their pre-restriction speeds. The systems had been disrupted the previous week, making it harder for Ukrainian forces to intercept incoming Russian attacks.
The Starlink slowdown heightened tensions between Ukraine and the US, as questions persisted over who was responsible for restricting the satellite services.
SpaceX owner Elon Musk accused Ukraine in posts on X of violating “Starlink terms of service” by using the system for offensive strikes. He said the “loophole was closed” and said that the company had “simply enforced our terms of service when they were bypassed.”
