An FBI agent last year tried to get colleagues to open a criminal investigation into Elon Musk after DOGE sent an email asking government employees to name five things they accomplished in a week.
Then-Special Agent Kevin Gounaud said Mr. Musk, who led the Department of Government Efficiency, caused employees to waste “a colossal amount of official time,” and violated information security policies, according to a 2025 email released by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Mr. Gounaud also suggested Mr. Musk was illegally enriching himself by using X, the social media network he owned, to share government information. Mr. Gounaud repeatedly dead-named the network as “Twitter,” a name Mr. Musk changed in 2023.
Mr. Gounaud said he would write up the documents to open the case and find a prosecutor who would take the case, or refer the matter to an inspector general.
“I’m not kidding,” Mr. Gounaud said in his email to colleagues.
There is no indication that an investigation was opened.
Mr. Musk was a special government employee at the time, which meant he was allowed to do government business on a temporary basis.
President Trump tasked him with leading DOGE, which set grand goals for spending and staff cuts but achieved only some of them.
He left that position in May 2025.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the committee, cast the proposed investigation as part of an ongoing attempt by some in the FBI to probe, thwart and “take out” Mr. Trump and Republican allies.
“The previous Democrat administrations under Obama and Biden conducted secret insidious and downright evil operations that almost took down our government,” the Iowa Republican said at a hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel.
He said some of the resistance is still going on.
Mr. Grassley, Congress’ leader in protecting whistleblowers and pushing for transparency, said some in the FBI are using overzealous redactions to prevent information from reaching the public.
He specifically named Jodi Peterson, an FBI employee he said is “largely responsible for obstruction.”
Mr. Grassley said the redactions broached a Trump transparency executive order. He said he wants to see Attorney General Todd Blanche investigate the matter.
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