Top Pentagon Official Contracted Personal Lawyer to Handle Minerals Deal
A top Pentagon official, Stephen Feinberg, utilized his personal lawyer to represent the Department of Defense in a $400 million deal with MP Materials. This arrangement has raised questions regarding potential conflicts of interest due to the lawyer's long-standing ties to Feinberg's private equity firm.
Why it matters
The report highlights concerns over ethics and transparency in government contracting during the current administration's push for critical mineral independence.
Last year, the Department of Defense announced it was taking a $400 million stake in critical minerals company MP Materials, and loaning the company an extra $150 million to expand operations at its mining site in Mountain Pass, California, the only rare earth location in the U.S. The historic deal was the first of several direct equity investments and loans the Pentagon has aggressively doled out to battery storage and mining companies in the second Trump administration, which now total more than $2 billion and have ramped up in recent months, as part of the military’s effort to break Chinese dominance of critical minerals supply chains.
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