An FBI agent sought to open a criminal investigation into SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in February last year after federal employees were asked, thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency, to list “five things” they accomplished during the previous week, according to records Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) obtained from the bureau released Tuesday.
Then-Special Agent Kevin Gounaud urged colleagues to investigate the billionaire and one-time special government employee over his DOGE initiative, arguing that it wasted “a colossal amount of official time,” violated information security policies, and enriched Musk through his use of his social media platform, X.
“And no, I’m not kidding,” Gounaud wrote to colleagues on Feb. 22, just one month into Trump’s second term.
Gounaud offered to prepare the paperwork needed to open a case and find a prosecutor willing to pursue it, or to refer the matter to an inspector general. The disclosure did not indicate whether an investigation was opened.
The email was among three sets of records Grassley released during FBI Director Kash Patel’s second annual oversight hearing before the committee, which sought to expose previously unseen instances of apparent weaponization by agents in the bureau. Grassley presented the disclosures as evidence supporting his accusations that some bureau personnel continued to target President Donald Trump and his allies even as he was settling into his second term.
Musk promoted the employee productivity request on X on Feb. 22, warning that failure to respond would be treated as a resignation. The Office of Personnel Management email asked employees to copy their managers and expressly instructed them not to submit classified information, links, or attachments. The agency ceased that practice in August last year.
Gounaud nevertheless raised information security concerns and suggested that Musk improperly enriched himself by communicating government information on his own social media platform.
Musk, who was an SGE at the time, left the administration in May 2025. Grassley’s office characterized the agents’ discussion of Musk as a double standard, contrasting the proposed investigation with its decision not to investigate Huma Abedin over her simultaneous government and Clinton Foundation work.
The other disclosures Grassley released included 2017 emails showing former Special Agent Walter Giardina asked at least seven times over four weeks to join a case within Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, according to Grassley’s office.
Grassley’s office contrasted those requests with Giardina’s previous description of the bureau’s public corruption unit: “In CR-15, we worked the cases we were assigned.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) questioned Patel about Giardina during the hearing. Patel confirmed he fired the agent.
“He violated the FBI standards and code of conduct,” Patel said, hedging to “public reports” about his conduct.
Patel also cited public reporting that Giardina was under investigation but declined to discuss details. He did not connect the firing or reported investigation to Tuesday’s disclosures.
A third set of records showed agents, including Giardina, monitoring Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s media appearances in 2022 during the contempt-of-Congress investigation, according to Grassley’s office. Navarro, who has worked in both Trump administrations, was convicted and served four months in prison in 2024 and is appealing his conviction to the Supreme Court.
Those records followed Grassley’s earlier release of FBI emails that he characterized as agents planning and celebrating Navarro’s prosecution.