Schiff Says Hegseth Should Testify on Ukraine Starlink Slowdown as Musk Cites Terms Violation and White House Denies Ordering It

The dispute over the Starlink and Starshield slowdown in Ukraine has moved from the battlefield to Capitol Hill. On Sunday, Oct. 25, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be made to explain it.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" by Kristen Welker whether he would call administration officials if Democrats win the Senate in this year's midterms, Schiff answered: "Absolutely. The defense secretary Hegseth should be brought in, anyone who has knowledge of what happened."

That is a promise conditional on an election result. It depends on Democrats retaking the Senate.

Three accounts that do not line up

Schiff's case rests on the gap between the stories. "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," he said. "Somebody is lying here. Maybe they're all lying in different ways, but we need to find out."

The accounts as they stand:

• Zelensky: Ukraine's president told NBC last week his government believes Washington sent the message. "It was the message from American government to limit this speed, and technically SpaceX did it," he said.
• The Trump administration: It denies ordering the restrictions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected reports that the U.S. was denying Ukraine satellite services it needs for its defense, saying: "That's not true. That's not accurate."
• Musk: He earlier said limits on Starshield "speed or usage" are "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS." In posts on X on Saturday, Oct. 24, he said: "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week." He added that SpaceX "simply enforced our terms of service when they were bypassed."

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Musk ordered the Starshield slowdown, and also that Trump called Musk to ask him to lift the restrictions.

Reuters reported Oct. 22, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official, that the order came from inside the White House. Those officials did not say who made the decision. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that "no such request was ever made by the president."

Ukraine's side has also pushed back on Musk's explanation. Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to Zelensky, said existing restrictions on Ukraine's civilian Starlink service already prevented offensive use. "It's very strange that Elon Musk doesn't know about the restrictions on Starlink's operation in Ukraine," he wrote online.

What changed on the ground

A source familiar with the matter told The Hill the slowdown targeted Starlink-supported Ukrainian drones, aircraft and helicopters moving faster than 100 mph. Ukraine said the disruption made it harder to intercept incoming Russian attacks.

Trump said Thursday that Musk had restored Starlink in Ukraine. Ukraine said Friday the system still wasn't working properly. By Saturday, Kyiv said Starlink and the military Starshield network were back at high speeds.

The service is restored, but the question of who pulled the lever is not settled.

The national security question

Schiff framed the issue as one of control. "Certainly the world's richest person shouldn't be controlling our national security interests. That is a spectacular threat to our national security if it is true," he said.

He pointed to Musk's weekend posts as a sign something shifted. "Something changed within the last week," Schiff said. "What was it that changed? Why did it change? What impact is it having on Ukraine's ability to defend itself? Is this in our national security interests?" He said Republicans have been "unwilling to ask" those questions.

The administration's position is the opposite: it says it asked for nothing. Musk's current position is that his company acted under its own contract terms after what he calls offensive drone use. Both can be tested against documents and testimony.

The underlying concern is one the public cannot easily resolve: a single private company can degrade a wartime ally's communications, and it is unclear whether it did so on its own authority or on a government request. That is true whether the instruction came from Trump, from the Pentagon, or from Musk himself.

What comes next

Newsweek said it asked the Defense Department for comment from Hegseth on Sunday. Schiff's pledge depends on Democrats winning the Senate in the midterms, and none of the sources describe the Pentagon, the White House or SpaceX releasing documents showing who gave the instruction to slow Starshield.