MARYLAND — On April 17, 2025, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) IT staffer Dan Berulis filed a defamation lawsuit in a Washington, D.C., court against Elon Musk over a social media post that accused him of filing a deliberately false whistleblower claim. The lawsuit alleges Musk’s post led readers to believe Berulis committed a serious crime and increased his risk of physical harm.
Berulis had filed a whistleblower complaint on April 14, 2025, alleging that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had compromised NLRB data systems and appeared to be exfiltrating data. Minutes after DOGE members accessed the agency’s systems, login attempts originated from an IP address in Russia, according to his complaint. He went public with his identity and allegations in an NPR article the following day.
In that NPR article, Berulis stated that a threatening note, accompanied by drone-captured photos of him walking his dog, had been taped to his door before he disclosed his complaint. He said he had moved into that residence only three months earlier and had not updated his address with most institutions—only with utilities, the Office of Personnel Management, and internal HR systems.
On April 19, 2025, Musk reshared a post on X suggesting DOGE had been “cleared” and calling for the Department of Justice to investigate Berulis. Musk added, “Filing a deliberately false whistleblower claim is a serious crime.” Berulis reported the post to X’s trust and safety team, which responded that it did not violate platform policies.
Two days after Musk’s post, Berulis was involved in a car accident in Maryland when his brakes failed. A mechanic later found that his brake lines had been cut and the driver-side front impact sensor removed, with wires spliced to bypass safety protocols. Fingerprints were recovered from the vehicle, but Prince William County police classified the case as inactive due to insufficient suspect information.
“The correlation was obvious to me, with the timing,” Berulis said, referring to the proximity of Musk’s post and the car incident. Berulis left the NLRB on April 29, 2025, and never returned to his residence after the accident.