Palantir Hires Ex-Sen. Jon Tester as Democrats Prepare to Take Over Congress

Palantir Technologies has hired former Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and organic farmer, as it prepares for scrutiny from the Democratic majorities that take over Congress in January. The move is part of a wider pattern. Tech companies expect a wave of oversight over their ties to the Trump administration and are bringing on former Democratic lawmakers and aides to make their case.

"My agreement with Palantir is advisory in nature, it is not lobbying," Tester, who lost his Senate seat in 2024, told NPR. "Perception is reality in Washington, D.C. and in politics in general. 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."

Democrats in Congress have targeted the company throughout President Trump's second term. Palantir, named by billionaire founder Peter Thiel after the seeing stone in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, has been accused of abetting mass surveillance of Americans and immigrants. The company denies it. It says it does not gather or manipulate data and instead builds tools that let government agencies and private companies organize their own information. It says it is committed to "protecting privacy and upholding liberal democratic values."

Earlier this year, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and 30 other Democratic lawmakers demanded answers about Palantir's contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and whether its tools are used to surveil Americans. Palantir said it is "neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens." Wyden's office said he was not fully satisfied. His staff told NPR he has "a number of questions" he intends to ask again as chairman of the Finance Committee, adding that "if Palantir is not responsive next year, compulsory processes will be on the table."

Aya Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute and a former State Department official, said the hiring is no coincidence. "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," she said.

The hire is notable because of Tester's record. During 18 years in the Senate he was an outspoken critic of the PATRIOT Act, passed after the 9/11 attacks, which expanded the Justice Department's surveillance powers. Asked whether he has the same concerns about his new employer, Tester said Palantir is different and 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."

Palantir's chief executive and co-founder, Alex Karp, calls himself a liberal but has been harshly critical of Democrats on immigration and artificial intelligence. In a 2025 interview with Axios he told his Democratic friends, "You have to grow a spine." 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 build a tool giving "near real-time visibility" into the movement of migrants.