Does attorney Norm Eisen -- who sued Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for alleged illegal dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) -- have a daughter who once worked for a non-profit funded by USAID? No, that's not true: Eisen has a daughter named Tamar. But she is not the same Tamar Eisen, whose LinkedIn biography shows she worked from 2019 to 2021 at the National Democratic Institute, partly funded by USAID. That Tamar Eisen was already a student at Northwestern University in 2016. Norm Eisen's daughter Tamar did not graduate high school until 2019.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here), published on February 27, 2025, along with three screenshots. The post was captioned:
BREAKING:
Buckle up, folks!
We've got a sizzling scoop that'll make your head spin!
Tamar Eisen, daughter of Norm Eisen - the mastermind behind a slew of lawsuits targeting @DOGE's efforts at @USAID - was a key player at a shady DC nonprofit that's been swimming in MILLIONS from, you guessed it, @USAID!
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) just pulled a sneaky move, scrubbing its page that proudly boasted about guzzling @USAID funds. Coincidence? We think not! Tamar was strutting her stuff as a Program Officer for NDI's Gender, Women and Democracy team for almost three years.
Talk about a jaw-dropping conflict of interest! This bombshell has "swamp creature" written all over it! 😱💥
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Feb 28 15:57:50 2025 UTC)
This false post was amplified by Musk when he reposted it (archived here) on February 27, 2025, adding the caption:
The Eisen crime family
One screenshot in the post shows a page from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) website which names several funders, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The text on the screenshot reads:
Who Supports Our Work
NDI expresses special thanks to the The National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State for their continued support. Also of special note is assistance provided by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS). Contributions from governments, foundations, multilateral institutions, corporations, organizations and individuals provide much-needed resources that enable the institute to carry out its work. NDI extends its gratitude to the following:
The third screenshot in the post is a detail from the LinkedIn profile showing various job positions held at the National Democratic Institute between 2019 and 2021. These specific roles and dates appear on the LinkedIn profile of a woman named Tamar Eisen. Additional details on this LinkedIn profile (pictured below) say that while attending Northwestern University, she won a Global Engagement Fellowship from September 2016 to June 2017 and then worked as an English teaching assistant overseas with the Fulbright Program from 2017 to 2018.
(Source: Linkedin.com screenshot taken on Fri Feb 28 19:55:26 2025 UTC)
These biographical highlights do not align with Norm Eisen's daughter Tamar Eisen, who would have still been attending high school then. On February 10, 2019, Eisen posted some photos on Twitter (archived here) announcing his daughter's graduation (embedded below). He wrote:
High school graduation day for Tamar. "The days are long but the years are short." Next: father-daughter road trip. Mazel tov sweetheart! pic.twitter.com/NzcQa9TpKE
-- Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) February 10, 2019
Lead Stories reached for comment to the Tamar Eisen who owns the Linkedin profile for comment. We also reached out to State Democracy Defenders Action, where Norman Eisen is a co-founder and board member and will update this article if we receive a response.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving USAID can be found here.
