Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency, has been a consultant to a wide swath of conservative organizations, including one of Elon Musk’s preferred dark money advocacy groups, according to new ethics disclosures.

Zeldin’s work for the Musk-backed group and others, combined with his plan to transfer the ownership of his public relations firm to his wife has generated concern among government watchdogs.

Even if Lee Zeldin resigns from Zeldin Strategies, which he has pledged to do if confirmed, his wife’s role leaves open the possibility that entities with business before the EPA — or connections to those who do — will try to influence the agency by hiring the Zeldins’ firm, said Tyson Slocum, a program director at Public Citizen.

“This is a huge financial conflict of interest,” Slocum said. Senators “need to be asking tough questions about how he can serve his official duties while his wife runs the lobbying firm.”

Zeldin’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Prior appointees have taken similar steps, and a representative for Zeldin directed questions about potential conflicts of interest to the Trump-Vance transition team. “All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies,” spokesperson Brian Hughes said by email.

Zeldin’s wife, Diana Zeldin, works for the firm currently. Lee Zeldin vowed to steer clear of specific EPA matters involving any of his wife’s clients, according to his government ethics agreement.

The Musk-backed group, Building America’s Future, was among the clients that paid the firm at least $5,000 in one of the past two years, and quite possibly much more — political appointees must disclose every client who paid $5,000 in a year. As a so-called dark money organization, it doesn’t make donors public. Musk has donated to the group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Building America’s Future says its purpose is to support the priorities of the incoming Trump administration. Trump campaign veterans Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio are senior advisers to the group, and in December, it started a digital advertising campaign to support Senate confirmation of Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host whom Trump has selected to lead the Defense Department.

Zeldin represented eastern Long Island in the US House for almost a decade, followed by a failed run for governor of New York in 2022. He then opened his consulting firm, offering strategy, crisis management, networking and public relations, to an array of conservative groups and causes.

“Mr. Zeldin transferring his interest in his firm to his spouse does absolutely nothing to address the potential conflict of interest concerns with his former clients,” Donald K. Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said by email. “That’s why the criminal conflict of interest statute applies to spousal assets and conflicts.”

Ethics agreements are hammered out in sometimes prolonged and complicated negotiations. “There is a lot of jawboning between the appointee and the Office of Government Ethics,” said Stan Brand, a longtime Washington defense attorney and ethics expert.

OGE typically tries to get the incoming official to meet what it sees as the requirements of the law, and while transferring a business to a spouse can raise questions, it has in the past been enough to resolve conflicts of interest. As for Zeldin, “he’s in compliance as far as I can see,” Brand said.