Mother Jones: As if Elon Musk didn’t already have enough advantages, between his billions and his leverage over President Donald Trump, he appears to have another ace up his sleeve: the US Marshals Service. In February, members of Musk’s private security detail were deputized by the Marshals Service, the enforcement and security arm of the federal judiciary, giving them federal law enforcement powers. On top of that, Musk appears to have some of the agency’s career staffers looking out for him: After an official at his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) complained that too many January 6 defendants were still in jail, a marshal reportedly prodded judges to release them faster. That’s not the only way Musk’s relationship to the marshals has raised eyebrows. In March, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that marshals helped DOGE barge into a small federal agency that Musk wanted to dismantle. “I will admit to being a little unnerved,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said in a segment afterward. The suggestion that federal law enforcement officers had turned against another federal agency seemed so strange that it caused Maddow to wonder whether the press had bad information: “We have reason to question whether the men reported as US marshals, now in multiple press accounts, are actually US marshals in the usual sense,” she said. Maddow didn’t elaborate on who else the men might be—maybe Musk’s private security officers, the ones who’d been deputized. Could they and the regular marshals be wielding their law enforcement powers in ways that are less about public safety and more about furthering Musk’s personal agenda? And what kind of oversight exists to keep them in line? Nailing down answers to these questions is a challenge. The Justice Department wouldn’t comment when Maddow’s team asked about the identity of the men. And at least one nonprofit watchdog is suing after its Freedom of Information Act requests about DOGE and the Marshals Service were ignored. Some of the confusion may stem from the fact that the Marshals Service is not an especially well known agency, making it harder for the general public to gauge whether its officers are acting within the scope of their normal duties by helping Musk. Neither the Justice Department nor White House spokespeople responded to my questions for this story, so I turned to former deputy marshals and other experts to try to understand what’s going on. Here’s what you should know…”