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FBI Agent Sought Criminal Probe of Elon Musk
Confirmed
In Short: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released emails showing an FBI agent proposed a criminal investigation into Elon Musk over his social media posts.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released emails showing an FBI agent proposed a criminal investigation into Elon Musk over his social media posts while Musk served as a special government employee.
In a February 2025 email, former FBI agent Kevin Gounaud proposed opening a criminal probe into Musk, arguing Musk's use of X to publicize his Department of Government Efficiency initiative amounted to a criminal act.
Gounaud contended Musk violated information security rules, wasted government resources, and generated revenue for himself through his X account.
The newly released documents also revealed FBI agents' efforts to join the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia.
Former FBI agent Walter Giardina, who was fired amid accusations of political weaponization, had repeatedly sought to join the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, showing a pattern of politically motivated actions within the FBI.
What's confirmed
- ET | Updated Sep. 16, 2026 WASHINGTON — Newly released emails show an FBI agent sought to open a criminal investigation last year into Elon Musk over a government email initiative while Musk served as a special government employee leading efficiency efforts in the Trump administration, according to records released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and first reported by Just The News.
- “And here we are, in 2026, still finding records from years ago showing even more evidence of targeting.” Other emails Grassley released show FBI agent Walter Giardina repeatedly asked to join the bureau’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged 2016 Trump campaign ties to Russia.
- Grassley had previously highlighted Giardina as part of a group of agents who appeared to celebrate the 2022 indictment of Trump adviser Peter Navarro.
What's still developing
- Internal memos declassified last year showed FBI agents in the Washington Field Office questioned whether there was sufficient probable cause for the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and objected to expanding the warrant to private areas of the residence.
- Gounaud wrote that the OPM employee, in conspiracy with Musk, wasted an enormous amount of official work time and exposed thousands of employees to information outside a strict need-to-know basis.
- Gounaud further argued Musk violated a federal personal-enrichment statute, since his X account might generate revenue for him.
- The Daily Caller News Foundation reported the probe relied on cherry-picked and in some cases fabricated intelligence, including the Steele dossier commissioned by Democrats during the 2016 campaign.
- Grassley's office told the Daily Caller News Foundation that targeting Musk's status as a special government employee reflects a double standard.
- The records cover internal FBI communications from 2017 and 2025, and examine both the bureau’s Russia probe and a push to investigate Musk, according to Grassley.
- “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 Twitter’s monetization model and/or advertising revenues,” Gounaud wrote.
- During an oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday, Grassley (R-Iowa) released a cache of internal bureau documents detailing politically charged actions by certain agents, including a 2025 proposal to criminally investigate Musk and earlier efforts by personnel to infiltrate the President Donald Trump-Russia probe.