SEC Official Sought Staff’s No-Politics Pledge on Musk Lawsuit

A high-ranking official at the Securities and Exchange Commission asked enforcement staff members in January to declare that a case they wanted to bring against Elon Musk was not motivated by politics, an unusual request that the staffers refused, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The casewent forward, but that request from Commissioner Mark Uyeda, a Republican who is now serving as the commission’s acting chairman, has contributed to a growing sense of unease inside an SEC division that handles high-stakes securities cases, according to the people, who asked not to be named for fear of ...