A federal IT staffer filed a complaint about DOGE, then went public. Shortly after Elon Musk boosted a post calling his claims false, his brake lines were cut. Now he’s suing for defamation.

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[–] 87 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Buried a little in the article, this was a bit more than just "... breaks cut"

and had the car seen by a mechanic who, according to the report, found “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.” The police report also indicates that fingerprints had been found on Berulis’ car. According to the police report, the case is now “inactive,” “due to the lack of any specific suspect information,” though the police’s intelligence unit was notified.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago*

    How is this not mainstream news?

    Edit: okay obviously it won't be mainstream news as mainstream news is owned by our ruling class and is for our ruling class to disseminate how and what we should think..

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  • [–] 20 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    is there an equivalent to engine braking with an electric vehicle?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Better not anger the king.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    You'd think someone would recognize their brakes were tampered with when they press it to start a car or get out of the driveway

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    That depends. On most modern vehicles, the front brakes do the majority of braking. Cut the rear brake line and you may get several presses at what feels like adequate pressure, but when the master cylinder runs dry and sucks in air past the piston, no more brakes. Who knows without being there, but it's definitely possible, especially for someone that doesn't drive often or doesn't notice a pedal feeling slight off. I have had people come in and hand me a brake pad that fround so thin it slipped out of the bracket. People can be oblivious sometimes.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    If you park on the street, and it’s level, might not notice until you’re up the street a bit.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Lol now I'm imagining someone cutting the break on an incline and the person trying to pull onto the road starts falling backwards

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    I mean. Maybe. But in all actuality that doesn't happen easily on automatic cars because of the way automatic transmissions are built. Parking pawl holds the transmission while it's parked. Then the valve body system and the torque converter work together to keep the car moving in the direction it's geared in. So in drive you'd be geared to move forward and so on.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago
    [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Don't whistle and drive folks

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  • [–] -4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Glad I ride a bike, if you cut the brake lines you would make a mess that is kinda obvious with the brake fluid going everywhere. Plus I would notice the brakes don't work before even getting on it.

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  • [–] 30 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, you'll definitely be safer if you ever, uh, work for the government file a whistleblower complaint. Another point to bikes!

    Jokes aside, it'd be way easier to kill you on a bike and they could make it look like an accident. Plus it's not like those are the only 2 options.

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  • 43 comments in c/politics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 99 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Seems like a straightforward lawsuit to win.

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  • [–] 32 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    If it wasn't filed against the super rich. These guys never pay lawsuits, even if they lose, they appeal, they drag it out, and I suspect they pay people off, to avoid paying one way and another.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they hired security firms that hired people that hire people to threaten jurors either at times, that is where we are in this country.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    These guys never pay lawsuits, even if they lose, they appeal, they drag it out

    Not so much any more. There are funds that will support large lawsuits to prevent victims from going broke, they take a percentage of settlements but they neuter the idea of dragging out a case as strategy and usually trigger a fast secret settlement.

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  • [–] 83 points 5 months ago (18 children)

    How great would it be if Elon perished in his Tesla the same way the teens that burned alive did

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (10 children)

    You don't actually believe K-Mart Hitler drives around in cars of its own brand, do you?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (9 children)

    What does it drive around in, then? I feel like its a problem when any automotive exec isnt main driving one of its own brands cars?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (8 children)

    "it" - use correct pronouns please. pile of shit = it. and it probably gets flown around in helis or limos.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)
  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    we can only hope for an unscheduled rapid disassembly of a heli with it inside. :)

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (5 children)

    Does it actually ride in helis? Never heard of elon travelling tha way. Always thought it was its version or Trump's only eating randomly selected fast food so he doesnt get poisioned by the Russians

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    I'm just assuming it's doing what rich people do to avoid the plebs. Keep in mind cars have to use roads like ordinary people. Do you really think billionaires risk getting into regular traffic much? I can't imagine that.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

    I just mean helis specificially. No doubt it uses private jets

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    private jets only get you so far. but from landing strip to somewhere nearby? need a heli or mix with the "plebs" on public streets...

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Ya but helicopter accidents are so common

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago*

    I think that's mostly because of the sheer mass of flights with them. But yeah - and at the same time - apparently not common enough to take out more billionaires.

    Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that from airport to venue, there's a limited set of options, and besides helis, I don't see any option other than using public roads or railways.

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  • [–] 30 points 5 months ago

    Crime is legal in the US as long as you're part of the Epstein class.

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  • [–] 29 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    This is exactly the kind of shit the CIA et al would do overseas to maintain US control of foreign governments, so no wonder the US/Trump are failing to maintain US global dominance. They’re frantically carrying out the same tactics on American soil to keep the house of cards from toppling & crushing the Epstein class

    The imperial boomerang hits hard on the return trajectory. With any luck it sinks American global hegemony for good

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago

    Traitors have allowed Russia and Israel to infiltrate the highest levels of the US government. Time to clean house.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago*

    It's more likely that the free trial period for his car's brakes ended.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (13 children)

    Dumb observation here... break brake lines are normally pipes, not wires.

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  • [–] 33 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Brake lines are normally spelled brake.

    No one said brake wires were cut. Regardless, many modern cars have brake-by-wire systems. It seems whomever sabotaged this car had a good knowledge of modern vehicle electrical systems.

    “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.”

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (5 children)

    They are literally never pipes going to the wheels, they can't be, the wheels move on the suspension. They are hoses.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    from the master cylinder they run as pipes under the car. The hose section is just to connect the final segment

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago

    Not only that but if it takes you 5 minutes of driving to realize u don't have brakes it's time you turn in your licence. I have burst lines before and once a line fails you no longer have any pedal pressure. If the line was cut when he got in his car right when starting the vehicle he should have stopped as the pedal went to the floor. More than likely his shit was rotted as I don't see a pic of this cut line, if it were cut it would be incredibly obvious vs corrosion.

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  • 7 comments in c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se view that post
    [–] 11 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    Let's get this straight, he witnessed DOGE access a system they claim to never have accessed and then let the Russians in. Clearly DOGE accessed and if they were not directly colluding with Russia, their security is so bad that the Russians just follow them around sniffing to see what they can access.

    Also, even though it is all made up Musk personally lied and discredited him. Even though it wasn't real he received a threatening note on his home door and his brake lines were later cut in his driveway.

    Clearly this guy is telling the an inconvenient truth that is worth killing him over. We all knew DOGE was bad and here is the smoking gun. Poor guy is getting his life ruined because he did his job. That is super fucked up.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)

    Wired, that's not a brake line. At least, it's not for the primary brake system. At best that could potentially be a parking brake cable.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    "As he approached a stop sign at an intersection, his car wouldn’t slow down. He ran off the road and into the sign."

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    I read the article. I am looking at the picture they used for the article.

    For clarity, your parking brake is often (not always especially not on newer cars - especially with the advent of electronic parking brakes) a braided cable.

    Your regular car brakes (attached to your brake pedal) are a hydraulically actuated system so the brake lines that were cut were actual brake hoses filled with fluid, not a brake cable.

    This is what a cut brake line looks like:

    https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2020/10/21/YCOY32GHCFGYFNORXHEEOJZ6RA.jpg?w=1024&h=670

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah I think thats stock or more likely ai in this day and age. As for what happened:

    "Five days after the NPR story went live, on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, Berulis got in his car to drive to Maryland to make a last-minute visit to his uncle, opting to take local roads instead of the major highway nearby. Within about five minutes of leaving his house, Berulis realized something was wrong. As he approached a stop sign at an intersection, his car wouldn’t slow down. He ran off the road and into the sign. When he examined his car, he found something that terrified him: His brake lines had been cut."

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