THE PROCESS IS THE PUNISHMENT, RIGHT UP UNTIL THE NASTY PUNISHMENT IS THE PUNISHMENT:Elon Musk tells a judge the SEC’s ‘endless’ investigation is stifling his free speech.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world (depending on the day) says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tried to “chill” his free speech in an “unrelenting investigation” of him and the automaker he co-founded. The SEC, Musk’s attorneys allege, “has broken its promises” in a 2018 settlement over a tweet Musk posted saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private.

“Worst of all, the SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government,” the letter states, “the SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in evenhanded fashion.”

Twenty years ago I would have dismissed Musk’s complaint as that of a crank.

These days, using whatever means are available to silence critics is just how our federal government conducts itself.