On Wednesday, the Seimas Board discussed why Žemaitaitis had declared his business trip as a personal trip and how to assess the content of his correspondence with the alleged U.S. official.
After the discussion, it was decided to refer the matter to the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Committee.
On Tuesday, Žemaitaitis and his wife went to Vilnius Airport and realised that he had been deceived – there would be no trip and no meeting with Elon Musk. The MEP was stabbed by an anonymous person claiming to be a Washington official.
The politician presented this fictitious trip to the Seimas Board as a personal trip, although he had been promised that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would pay for it, which would cost around 30,000 euros.
He will contact the ethics watchdog
The President of the Seimas, Saulius Skvernelis, said that the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Commission should discuss the content of Žemaitaitis' correspondence and that it should be investigated whether the declaration of the trip as a personal trip had violated Seimas procedures.
„Not only have various facts emerged in the public domain that this was a fraud, but other things are involved in this process. The most important thing is to examine whether the procedures governing trips by Members of the Seimas have been violated – whether it was a personal trip. Considering what has been published in the media, it seems that it was not,“ Skvernelis said.
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and leader of the Liberal Movement, sees a deeper problem.
„We all feel cheated, and I support the initiative to appeal to the Ethics Commission. But I would like to look at this situation more.
In the current geopolitical context, regardless of whether we are in the position of the opposition, irrespective of whether we differ in our opinions, when we represent the Seimas, when we speak on behalf of Lithuania to foreign partners, and Žemaitaitis imagined that he was talking to Musk's assistants, we are broadcasting a message that does not demean any particular branch of government, nor does it bring our differences to the outside.
The information that has been made public shows quite the opposite. It makes me wonder how this Member of Parliament speaks, for example, when he attends a NATO parliamentary assembly. (...) He likely speaks similarly to what we have seen in the correspondence. Here I see another severe problem“, said Čmilytė-Nielsen.
The Seimas Management Board approved Skvernelis' proposal to refer the matter to the ethics watchdog.
What did they write?
The details of Žemaitaitis' alleged trip were made public by Laisvės TV, which received the information from an anonymous person who deceived the politician.
The correspondence reveals that the anonymous person, who identified himself as Ryan Reidel, an employee of the US DOGE, sent the first email to Žemaitaitis on 14 February. The email stated that the DOGE had received a letter from the MEP regarding USAID funding, but Žemaitaitis was asked not to make the correspondence public.
A person who identified himself as Reidel offered the leader of Nemuno Aušra to come to the USA and informed him that DOGE would cover all travel expenses. Žemaitaitis indicated that he would like to go to the U.S. in the first weeks of March, and the politician also asked not to disclose the details of the correspondence or the details of the meeting „because of the media attention“.
On the dates of the imaginary visit, 4–6 March, a first-class flight, a five-star hotel, and a private chauffeur will soon be offered to the MEP. Later, invitations to the theatre. The total cost of the trip is around EUR 30,000.
The MEP is informed that a meeting with Musk is already being planned. He is also asked to express his support on social networks for the new U.S. administration and Musk himself so that they can use this as proof of their friendship. The politician does so on his Facebook account.
In his letters, Žemaitaitis allegedly asks the DOGE representative whether they trust the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania because, according to him, the former ruling coalition, which supported Joe Biden, actively cooperated with the embassy's staff.
The letters also criticise President Gitanas Nausėda. Žemaitaitis writes that he wants to expose „communists and destroyers of freedom of speech“.
„It is difficult to explain what is happening now. It is also difficult to explain the negative statements made by our President Nausėda about U.S. President Trump. These leftist groups need to be exposed“, Žemaitaitis wrote in his letter.
He also receives questions from an anonymous person claiming to be a DOGE representative about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In one of the letters, Žemaitaitis believes that Trump has done the right thing by engaging in a public spat in the Oval Office with the leader of Kyiv.
„Lithuania's position on this issue is not strong because the leftists, together with President Nausėda, do not support Trump's actions and decisions“, he wrote.