FBI Agent Compared Musk’s DOGE Effort to Clinton Email Scandal to Justify Probe, Records Reveal
A former FBI agent attempted to launch an investigation into Elon Musk when the billionaire was leading the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting efforts.
The former special agent compared Musk’s use of X to promote DOGE (which the agent still referred to in an email as Twitter) as being similar to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using a private email server to conduct government business.
The push for the investigation came after Musk asked federal employees to list five things they accomplished during the week, according to emails released by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Grassley released a new tranche of FBI records before testimony Tuesday by FBI Director Kash Patel.
“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 Steven T. Dunn, FBI supervisory special agent, referring to an official with the Office of Personnel Management.
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 OIG or Congress. And no, I’m not kidding.”
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According to his LinkedIn profile, Gounaud left the FBI in February after 21 years and started a private security firm.
It appears nothing came of the matter. But the former agent laid out the case, writing, “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.”
He wrote, “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 investigating the discredited Russia collusion allegations.
Patel fired Giardina in 2025. Giardina is among multiple FBI agents suing the FBI, alleging their termination was for political reasons.
On the day of Trump’s first inauguration, Jan. 20, 2017, Giardina emailed FBI agent Joe Pientka to say, “I wanted to mention again my interest in joining the case.”
Giardina said in a Jan. 12, 2017, message to FBI supervisor Timothy Thibault, “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 The New York Times, stating, “We worked the cases we were assigned … The supervisors came to us and said, ‘You’re going to do this.’”
Giardina was part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign that ultimately found no evidence of conspiring with the Russians in the 2016 election. However, the Mueller team suggested Trump might have obstructed the investigation. Giardina was later part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump for disputing the outcome of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.
“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 to begin the FBI oversight hearing Tuesday. “And he did so with the help of Thibault. Based on the records known to date, that case didn’t advance.”
Grassley noted that the Biden administration’s Justice Department and FBI considered opening a campaign finance probe into then-Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she left the Democrats 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.
The Daily Signal left a voicemail with the publicly listed phone number for Gounaud, and a phone and email message with the publicly listed contact information for Giardina. Neither immediately responded to the inquiries.
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