A former senior security manager at SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s company and one of its high-ranking employees, alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and security violations.
TechCrunch reports that Jenna Shumway, a former senior contractor program security officer at SpaceX, has filed a lawsuit against the company and Daniel Collins, a former Defense Department official hired to oversee security compliance for SpaceX’s government work. The lawsuit, filed in late May in the Los Angeles County Superior Court and later moved to federal court, alleges that Shumway experienced harassment, retaliation, and security violations during her time at the company.
According to the complaint, Shumway was promoted to senior contractor program security officer after being hired in 2022. However, her work environment drastically changed when Collins was hired as her superior in spring 2024. Shumway claims that Collins engaged in a campaign of harassment against her, which included stripping her of responsibilities over several months and ultimately leading to her termination in October 2024.
The lawsuit also alleges that Collins’ harassment extended to other female employees at SpaceX. The discrimination reportedly included preventing female staff from performing required security work, effectively setting them up for noncompliance, staring at one employee’s chest during a meeting, and inappropriately inviting a subordinate female employee to “get s–tty together” over after-work drinks.
Shumway and other female employees reportedly filed complaints with SpaceX’s human resources department, but the company allegedly ignored these complaints and took no action beyond suggesting that the employees avoid being alone with Collins.
In addition to the harassment allegations, Shumway claims that Collins violated top secret protocols and concealed this information from the government. This aligns with a December 2024 report by the New York Times, which stated that SpaceX was under federal review for sloppy security protocols. According to the Times, Collins discouraged reporting security clearance violations and allowed executives without proper clearances into classified meetings, triggering at least three federal reviews of the company’s security procedures.
This lawsuit is not the first time SpaceX has faced legal action over claims of sexual discrimination and a hostile work environment. The company is also battling investigations from the California Civil Rights Department and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over similar allegations.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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