Jared Isaacman, the on-off-on again nominee to lead NASA, on Wednesday denied allegations of a potential conflict of interest because of his friendship with billionaire Elon Musk, adding doesn’t know why President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination earlier this year only to renominate him last month.

Isaacman made the comments at a second confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which previously had voted to advance his initial nomination to the floor in April. Trump withdrew the nomination in May.

The committee has scheduled a markup on his nomination for Monday.

Isaacman is the founder and chairman of Shift4 Payments, a payment processor. In 2021, he commanded the first all-civilian spaceflight, Inspiration4, and later led SpaceX’s five-

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