The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has issued a letter to Elon Musk to preserve documents regarding the slowdown of Starshield in Ukraine ahead of expected investigations into Donald Trump’s administration, CNN reports, citing a Democratic Senate aide.

The Committee also issued letters to all of the ports, banks and private entities involved in the Russian diesel deal, the aide said.

READ MORE

The aide said it is “a standard committee process to issue letters” for overall document preservation to people who are suspected of breaking the law “or engaging in certain activities.”

When they take the majority in January, Democrats in Congress are expected to conduct robust efforts to probe the Trump administration’s actions over the past two years.

Ranking member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is retiring and Sen. Chris Coons is expected to become the chair of the committee, sources told CNN.

When it comes to the lame duck period, the aide said there are not expected to be major changes on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The “base text both in the Senate and the House is largely settled,” they said.

The aide said that if “something drastic happens” with the war in Iran, “there might be an effort from Democrats to push forward on some new language in exchange for votes.” However, they noted there is still a Republican majority in the current Congress, so it is unlikely they will be in favor of restricting President Donald Trump on the matter.

The aide said they expect Republicans will try to confirm as many nominees, including for ambassadorships, as possible during the lame duck period.

On 14 October 2026, Serhiy Beskrestnov (Flash), adviser to the President of Ukraine and a radio technology expert, reported that SpaceX had introduced speed limits on the operation of Starlink satellite internet terminals while in motion. He said that the restrictions applied to the StarShield “military package” and were set at a speed of 100 miles per hour (about 160 km/h).