A newly disclosed batch of FBI records reveals that a veteran bureau agent sought to open a criminal case against Elon Musk over his use of X while the billionaire was spearheading federal cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency.
According to The Daily Signal, the former special agent likened Musks use of X to promote DOGEstill calling the platform Twitter in internal correspondenceto former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons use of a private email server for official business. The push for an investigation followed Musks directive that federal employees list five things they had accomplished during the week, a move that triggered internal complaints, according to emails released by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Grassley released the records ahead of FBI Director Kash Patels oversight testimony, highlighting what conservatives have long argued is a politicized culture inside the bureau. I would like to recommend the opening of a criminal 58 matter on the person(s) at OPM who approved the transmission of the earlier email. That person, in conspiracy with Elon Musk (who is reportedly an SGE), in addition to wasting a colossal amount of official time, encouraged, abetted, aided, etc. thousands if not tens of thousands, of government employees to violate government-wide security policy and transmit sensitive government information outside of a strict need to know, then-FBI Special Agent Kevin Gounaud wrote in a Feb. 22, 2025, email to FBI Supervisory Special Agent Steven T. Dunn.
Gounaud pressed the matter further, writing, Happy to write the case opening and find a prosecutor (or at least try). Alternatively, I am happy to report this to the OPM OIG or Congress. And no, Im not kidding. According to his LinkedIn profile, Gounaud left the FBI in February after 21 years and launched a private security firm, and it appears no criminal case was ever opened.
Nonetheless, Gounaud laid out his theory of wrongdoing, asserting, Musk used a non government system (twitter) to relate information that allegedly was for official purposes. In doing so, because he is monetized (he is a majority owner of twitter) he likely generated income for himself based on Twitters monetization model and/or advertising revenues. He added that, His use of twitter in this and other instances is conceptually similar to Hillary Clintons misuse of a private email server for government business.
The same tranche of records also sheds light on former FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina, who was involved in investigations of President Donald Trump and repeatedly lobbied to join the Crossfire Hurricane probe into the debunked Russia-collusion narrative. Patel fired Giardina in 2025, and Giardina is now among several agents suing the FBI, alleging they were terminated for political reasons.
On Jan. 20, 2017, the day of Trumps first inauguration, Giardina emailed FBI agent Joe Pientka stating, I wanted to mention again my interest in joining the case. In a Jan. 12, 2017, message to FBI supervisor Timothy Thibault, he wrote, Id be very glad to work with your squads regarding these matters. Please let me know when I could stop by to meet and how I can assist.
Giardina was previously quoted in The New York Times as saying, We worked the cases we were assigned The supervisors came to us and said, Youre going to do this. He later served on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of the Trump campaign, which found no evidence of conspiracy with Russia in the 2016 election but insinuated that Trump might have obstructed the probe, and then on special counsel Jack Smiths investigation of Trump over his challenge to the 2020 election results.
In the records, Giardina asked at least seven times via email in about four weeks to place himself on the Crossfire Hurricane team and start a new case on Trump, Grassley said in prepared remarks for Tuesdays hearing. And he did so with the help of Thibault. Based on the records known to date, that case didnt advance.
Grassley further pointed out that the Biden administrations Justice Department and FBI weighed a campaign finance investigation into then-Arizona Sen. Kristen Sinema after she left the Democratic Party to become an independent. His efforts, as well as the case he tried to open on Sen. Sinema, undercut public statements by former FBI officials that agents dont get to pick their cases, Grassley said, underscoring conservative concerns that the bureaus immense power is being selectively deployed against political outsiders and dissenters.
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