Palantir hires former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester as it braces for scrutiny in the new Congress

Technology companies are preparing for a wave of scrutiny from Democrats over the industry's ties to the Trump administration when the party takes control of Congress in January. In anticipation, many are hiring former Democratic lawmakers and aides to make their case to the incoming House and Senate majorities.

Among the latest to make that move is Palantir, which has hired former Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and organic farmer who lost his reelection bid in 2024. Tester told NPR in an interview that his "agreement with Palantir is advisory in nature, it is not lobbying."

The secretive American software and artificial intelligence company, named by billionaire founder Peter Thiel after the mythical "seeing stone" from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, has drawn the ire of congressional Democrats during President Trump's second term. The company has been accused of abetting mass surveillance of Americans and immigrants.

"Perception is reality in Washington, D.C. and in politics in general," Tester said. "But the fact is, I think Palantir has got a good story to tell, and they need to tell it. And hopefully folks will be receptive to it."

Palantir has long denied that it aids mass surveillance of the American public, saying it does not gather or manipulate data at all and instead builds tools that let government agencies and private companies organize and optimize their own information. The company has said it is committed to "protecting privacy and upholding liberal democratic values."

Earlier this year, while still in the minority, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and 30 other Democratic lawmakers demanded answers about Palantir's contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and whether its tools are part of federal efforts to surveil Americans. Palantir denied the accusation, saying it is "neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens," but Wyden was not fully satisfied with the response, according to his Senate office. His staff said in a statement that he intends to ask again, as chairman of the Finance Committee, about "Palantir's work to facilitate the Trump-Vance abuse of government data," adding that "compulsory processes will be on the table" if the company is not responsive next year.

Aya Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute and a former State Department official, said it is no coincidence that tech companies are turning to Democrats to burnish their reputations. "I think at the end of the day, these companies have an inordinate amount of money and they will try and put it wherever they can in order to stave off any real accountability," Ibrahim said.

During Trump's second term, Palantir CEO and co-founder Alex Karp, a self-described liberal, has been highly critical of Democrats on issues such as immigration and artificial intelligence. Referencing his support for much more restrictive immigration policies in a 2025 interview with Axios, Karp said: "You have to grow a spine because a lot of these people actually agree with me in private."

Tester was an outspoken critic of the PATRIOT Act during his 18 years in the Senate. Asked whether his concerns about government surveillance extend to his new employer, he said Palantir is different because it does not build "big databases" or trade in private data. "I wanted to do away with the Patriot Act because it was about privacy," he said. "I've talked to many people within Palantir. They believe the same way I do. This is an organization that believes in privacy."

Last year, more than a dozen former Palantir employees criticized the company over its $30 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to create a tool that provides "near real-time visibility" into the movement of migrants, arguing the work violated the company's own code of conduct. Palantir, valued at over $350 billion, currently holds $2 billion worth of federal contracts, most of them with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, though it also works with the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services. Tester said he will focus on the government services side of the company's work.

The former senator called the midterm election results a blue "tidal wave" after two years of a Congress that brought him "great disappointment." "I don't think you're going to see the kind of aggressive tactics that were taken forth by ICE moving forward," he said of the upcoming Congress.