Democrats renew call for probe of rescinded Boring fines; Lombardo says allegations are ‘baseless’

Nevada state regulators say the investigation into alleged safety violations at The Boring Company’s underground tunnel project— and the resulting controversies — have been addressed, but Democratic federal and state lawmakers are calling for an independent investigation, citing inconsistencies.

In December, Fortune reported that just one day after Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration served Elon Musk’s Boring Company more than $425,000 in fines for safety violations in May 2025, the fine was rescinded following a call from Boring president Steve Davis to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office.  

Public records documenting the meeting with Boring and the revoking of the violations also disappeared. A forensic analysis by the Governor’s Technology Office was unable to recover the records and could not determine how the files were deleted or who deleted them.

A review of the case file by the Governor’s Technology Office indicated that the original files could not be restored or recovered because of “existing backup retention limitations,” according to the Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office.

“It’s been a whole year since Lombardo’s administration orchestrated the shady cover-up of a company owned by the richest man in the world, and Nevada’s still have zero answers,” Assemblymember Cinthia Moore (D-Las Vegas) said during a press conference with U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) last week.

During the press conference, Moore said Lombardo has been inconsistent when explaining why his office could not find evidence of how the files were deleted. 

“When Lombardo’s office was asked about the cover-up, he claimed his office couldn’t find any evidence on the deleted OSHA records because of the cyber attack back that our state suffered back in August, but the files were deleted last May, and no other government official has made such a claim before,” Moore said.

Moore was referring to a March interview during a Nevada Independent event, where Lombardo responded to a question about the Boring controversy by suggesting the files couldn’t be recovered because of a cyber attack that crippled many of the state’s services and websites.

“There was an allegation that all those records had been deleted. Unfortunately that was in close proximity to the cyber incident and so the computer systems within — as has been told to me through an investigation — that were responsible via OSHA and (Nevada Business and Industry), they had lost a lot of records not just that one a lot of records in some of their ongoing investigations,” Lombardo said during the event. 

In a statement provided to the Current this week, Lombardo’s office said that their technology office’s inability to recover the file “was not related to the cyber-incident,” adding that the governor “simply conflated two issues stemming from the same confusing constellation of baseless accusations” when responding to questions about the Boring investigation.

Lombardo’s office said the governor was referring to “a limited set of files contained on the office’s shared drive — included documents reflecting the composition (and potential vacancies) for certain Nevada State Boards and Commissions.”

“The Office’s inability to recover those files resulted in some initial uncertainty and processing delays in filling certain vacancies,” said Lombardo’s communication director, Drew Galang, in a statement. 

During the press conference, Titus and Moore accused Lombardo of participating in a “cover-up” and demanded an independent investigation into the 2024 violation investigated by Nevada OSHA, relating to workers and firefighters enduring chemical burns on the job.

“Tell us how they got off the hook,” Titus said. “Tell us why there was no appeals process that looked at why they suddenly didn’t have to pay the penalty. None of those questions has been answered.”

“We learned that suddenly the OSHA penalty just disappeared. There was a mysterious phone call to the governor. The Elon Musk folks made a few phone calls, and suddenly there were no more problems,” she continued.

Legal counsel with the Division of Industrial Relations and Nevada OSHA told lawmakers during a February meeting that the citations were revoked because they were “legally insufficient” due to mistakes and anomalies in the incident report. 

A spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Business and Industry in a statement to the Current this week said “questions about this inspection have been asked and answered,” pointing to a federal OSHA investigation on the incident that found  “new policies established by Nevada OSHA were adequate to address the deficiencies in the process that allowed legally insufficient citations to be issued.”

In a statement, Business and Industry spokesperson Teri Williams said accusations of a cover up was “political theater” and that “state and elected officials need to stop using this office as a weapon in their partisan attacks.”

“If Congresswoman Titus was actually interested in determining the facts, she would have contacted the department directly instead of holding a press conference,” Williams said in a statement. 

During the press conference, Titus and Moore emphasized that their call for an independent investigation and more transparency from the governor’s office is not political, as election season and the fight for the governor’s seat heats up.

“This happened over a year ago. It has nothing to do with the election. Nevadans deserve answers,” Moore said.

“We started this a year ago, that was not the election cycle. This is about the safety of the people who live in District 1, they care more about that than they do about any kind of election politics,” Titus said.

“Since then we’ve learned that there are other problems down there, problems of ventilation, problems of exiting in the case of an emergency. Firefighters don’t have adequate access to what they might need in case of an accident,” Titus continued.