Palantir has hired former Sen. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat and organic farmer, as the data analytics company gets ready for tougher questions from Democrats who take control of Congress in January.

Tester, who lost his Senate seat in 2024, said his deal with the company is advisory and not lobbying. He said Palantir has a good story to tell and needs to tell it.

Tech firms across the industry are adding former Democratic lawmakers and staffers as the party prepares to use its new majorities to examine Silicon Valley's ties to the administration.

Surveillance questions

Palantir, named for the seeing stones in The Lord of the Rings, has been accused by critics of helping the government watch Americans and immigrants. The company says it builds tools that agencies and businesses use to organize their own data and that it neither conducts nor enables mass surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Earlier this year Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and 30 other Democrats demanded answers about Palantir's work for the Department of Homeland Security. Wyden is in line to chair the Senate Finance Committee. His office said he will ask those questions again next year and that compulsory processes are on the table if the company does not respond.

A senior fellow at an AI policy institute said the hiring spree is no accident, arguing that cash-rich companies spend wherever they can to avoid real accountability.

From Patriot Act critic to Palantir adviser

During 18 years in the Senate, Tester was a loud critic of the Patriot Act and its expanded surveillance powers. He said he still wants nobody watching him, including Big Brother. He added that the people he has met at Palantir share his belief in privacy. He said the firm does not build big databases or sell personal data.

Palantir is valued at more than $350 billion and holds about $2 billion in federal contracts, mostly with the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments. More than a dozen former employees last year criticized its $30 million deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a tool tracking the movement of migrants.

Tester said he will focus on the government services side of the business. He called the midterm results a blue tidal wave and predicted the new Congress will rein in the aggressive tactics used by ICE.