The email does not show that the proposed investigation was ultimately opened nor that Musk was the subject of criminal charges. It is also unknown what response Gounaud received from his superiors after raising the initiative.
The FBI agent involved compared Musk's actions to the case of Hillary Clinton's emails
Grassley made the document public while senators were questioning FBI Director Kash Patel during a hearing in Washington. The Republican stated that the email, along with other evidence related to the actions of agency agents, challenges statements from former FBI officials that agents could not select cases to investigate on their own initiative.
Patel, for his part, told the senators that the FBI had fired agents involvedin certain investigations, including actions in which intelligence may have been improperly gathered. The director added that there are several ongoing criminal investigations related to conduct he described as illegal, although he did not publicly link those investigations to Gounaud's specific proposal against Musk.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Gounaud is no longer part of the FBI since February 2026. The agent had worked at the institution since 2004.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, was questioned by the U.S. Congress
The proposal came during the period when Musk was collaborating with the administration of President Donald Trump as a special government employee and was participating in DOGE activities, an initiative created to reduce costs and modify structures of the federal administration.
Musk's participation as a special employee concluded in the spring of 2025, while DOGE formally closed its operations in July of that year. Musk has not been charged with any crime related to the events described in the email.
An FBI agent proposed in February 2025 to open a criminal investigation related to Elon Musk and his work with the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE), according to an email released on September 15 by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
The message, dated February 22, 2025, was sent by FBI agent Kevin Gounaud to one of his supervisors. In it, Gounaud proposed recommending the opening of an investigation against the person or persons from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) who had authorized the sending of an email to federal employees asking them what they had done during the previous week.
Gounaud argued that the responsible official may have acted in coordination with Musk to violate security policies applicable to the entire federal government and transmit sensitive information outside of established channels and a strict "need to know" criterion.
The agent also questioned whether Musk had used a non-governmental system, then known as Twitter, to communicate information that was allegedly related to official activities. According to Gounaud, since Musk earned income through the monetization and advertising of the platform, the entrepreneur could have generated economic benefits from those communications.
An FBI agent proposed opening a criminal investigation against Elon Musk while he was performing his duties in DOGE
In the email, Gounaud compared the situation to the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton while serving as Secretary of State. The FBI decided not to take action against Clinton after determining that there was insufficient evidence of criminal intent.
Gounaud also suggested that Musk may have violated federal legislation that restricts the participation of executive branch employees in government matters that could affect their own financial interests.
The agent expressed his willingness to personally push the proposal. "I am willing to draft the case opening and find a prosecutor, or at least try," he wrote to his superior. He later added a clarification to emphasize that he was serious: "And no, I'm not joking."
