On April 14, 2025, Dan Berulis, an IT employee at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), submitted Parliamentary whistleblower complaints for strange and urgent claims: What is known Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was apparently compromising the agency’s data and seemed to be taking it out of the NLRB altogether. Additionally, Berulis claimed that minutes after DOGE members accessed the agency’s data, there appeared to be login attempts from an IP address in Russia.
At that time, the DOGE teams, coordinated by the billionaire Elon Muskthey were spread the governmentfiring federal employees, and accessing sensitive data and technical systems with little oversight and transparency.
The next day, Berulis announced publicly NPR article along with his name and claims. In it, he claimed that prior to his disclosure by Congress, a threatening letter had been taped to his door, including photos of him walking his dog that appeared to have been taken by a drone. Berulis was already afraid that speaking out made him a target.
In a new defamation lawsuit, filed by Berulis in DC court on April 17 and made public this week, Berulis claims that Musk himself made him the target of more violence by falsely saying that Berulis’ whistleblower claims against DOGE were false. The complaint was filed under seal because Berulis has a security clearance that requires a pre-publication review of anything related to his work with the government.
Five days after the NPR story went live, on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, Berulis drove to Maryland to make a last-minute visit to his uncle, opting to take local roads instead of the nearby highway. Within about five minutes of leaving his home, Berulis realized something was wrong. When he approached the stop sign at the intersection, his car did not slow down. He ran off the road and into a sign. When he checked his car, he found something that horrified him: Its brake lines had been cut.
Unbeknownst to Berulis at that time, the previous night, April 19, at 8:06 p.m., Musk was was re-shared X post from right-wing lobbyist Mario Nawfal, claiming that DOGE had been “disbanded” and that people were asking the Justice Department to investigate Berulis. Musk shared Nawfal’s post, writing, “Deliberately filing false whistleblower claims is a serious crime.” The story was originally shared by @amuse, an account that has regularly shared misleading claims and misinformation and is followed by influential people such as Musk and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. @amuse’s post included Berulis’ name and photo.
According to a police report seen by WIRED, when a police officer from Prince William County arrived on the scene, Berulis’ attorney from Whistleblower Aid, Andrew Bakaj, who helped Berulis file his congressional complaint about DOGE, was also on the scene.
Berulis, who found out about Musk’s tweet after the accident, thought back to the threatening message that had been posted on his door earlier that month.
According to the lawsuit, “Musk’s readers implied” that Berulis had committed a serious crime, “as indicated by responses demanding prosecution, imprisonment, harm, or arrest,” and that this placed him at “significant risk of physical harm.” In response to the post, which remains online, several users called for Berulis to be prosecuted. One user wrote“Sewers get stitches”.
“The connection was obvious to me, and time,” he says. Berulis also began to worry about how exactly the person who was threatening him knew where he lived.
