Treasury Secretary says feds 'have no basis' to investigate Musk purchase of Twitter

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday broke with President Joe Biden over a possible investigation of Tesla founder Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, asserting that the government lacked any reason to examine the transaction.

"We really have no basis — to the best of my knowledge — to examine his finances of his company," Yellen told CBS News.

Biden last week floated federal review of the purchase on national security grounds while also suggesting an inspection of the investors backing Musk's takeover of the San Francisco tech company.

"I think that Elon Musk’s cooperations and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at," he said in a press conference. "Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at and that’s all I’ll say."

News broke in May of this year that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Musk's purchase of shares in the social media platform, prior to his complete purchase.

The SEC previously investigated him for securities fraud over Tweets suggesting he would take Tesla private. A judge later ruled that Musk must comply with an SEC-imposed settlement.