FBI emails show agent sought Musk criminal probe, another pushed to join Crossfire Hurricane
Congressional scrutiny of the FBI has returned to the document-release cycle that defined much of the post-2016 decade. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, released a set of unclassified internal…
Key takeaways
- Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley released unclassified internal FBI emails from Operation Crossfire Hurricane, alleging they show political targeting inside the bureau.
- Former agent Kevin Gounaud sent an internal email in February 2025 seeking to open a criminal investigation of Elon Musk, comparing Musk's use of X for government purposes to Hillary Clinton's private email server.
- Agent Walter Giardina, fired by FBI Director Kash Patel in August over political weaponization accusations, had sent at least seven emails over four weeks in early 2017 seeking assignment to Crossfire Hurricane.
- Timothy Thibault was accused by Grassley of violating the Hatch Act for resharing a Lincoln Project post attacking Trump, but the U.S. Office of Special Counsel investigated and dismissed the complaint.
- Grassley called the sustained pattern of alleged FBI conduct 'arguably worse than Watergate' at an Oversight hearing with Director Patel.
Congressional scrutiny of the FBI has returned to the document-release cycle that defined much of the post-2016 decade. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, released a set of unclassified internal emails from Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the Obama-era Justice Department inquiry into alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia, arguing the contents point to political targeting inside the bureau.
The documents center on three former agents. Kevin Gounaud, who left the FBI in February 2025 according to his LinkedIn profile, sent an internal email that same month seeking to open a criminal investigation of Elon Musk. Musk was at the time a special government employee overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. Gounaud's rationale: Musk had used X, the social media platform Musk owns and which generates advertising revenue through its monetization model, to relay what Gounaud described as information for official government purposes. He compared the conduct to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for government business.
Grassley posted on X that the agent had been "ready to open a CRIMINAL CASE" because Musk asked government workers to report five things they accomplished in a week.
The broader pattern
The same batch covers Walter Giardina, fired by FBI Director Kash Patel in August over accusations of political weaponization. Beginning in January 2017, Giardina sent former Supervising Agent Joe Pientka at least seven emails across four weeks seeking assignment to Crossfire Hurricane. That investigation was later transferred to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May. Grassley said the case Giardina tried to open on his own never advanced.
Giardina's correspondence also drew in Timothy Thibault, whom Grassley had previously accused of violating the Hatch Act. The allegation stemmed from Thibault resharing a Lincoln Project post on Twitter calling Trump a "psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man." The U.S. Office of Special Counsel investigated and dismissed the complaint.
Grassley's committee has released documents from Operation Arctic Frost and Operation Round River over the past decade along similar lines. At an Oversight hearing with Patel, Grassley called the sustained pattern "arguably worse than Watergate." The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Source · 來源