‘Worse than Watergate’ New FBI files detail agent’s push to join Trump probe, investigate Elon Musk

An FBI agent repeatedly sought to join the bureau's Russia investigation involving President Donald Trump, while another pushed for a criminal investigation of Elon Musk over an email asking federal employees what they accomplished at work, according to documents newly released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The records span internal FBI communications from 2017 and 2025, covering both the bureau's Russia investigation and a proposal to investigate Musk. Grassley said the exchanges reflected political bias within the bureau and showed the "Deep State" working against Trump. The documents were released as part of a broader batch involving Crossfire Hurricane and other FBI matters. "The previous Democrat administrations under Obama and Biden conducted secret, insidious and downright evil operations that almost took down our government," Grassley said during an Oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. "That's arguably worse than Watergate." Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI's 2016 counterintelligence investigation into whether members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign coordinated with Russia's election interference, though Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Russian government. DAN BONGINO REVEALS HE FOUND 'MOTHER LODE' OF SECRET RUSSIAGATE FILES INSIDE FBI BURN BAGS Over the past decade, the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the direction of Grassley, has released several rounds of documents from a few FBI operations such as Operation Arctic Frost and Round River, alleging that the Justice Department was being weaponized against Trump and Republicans. "The overall sustained efforts by the Deep State in the dark corners of the bureaucracy is worse than anything Trump has been accused of. At least he’s upfront and open so people can judge," Grassley said. At the center of the Senate Judiciary Committee's most recent document release are three former FBI agents: Kevin Gounaud, Walter Giardina, who was fired by Patel in August over accusations of political weaponization, and Timothy Thibault. Gounaud, who left the bureau in February, according to his LinkedIn, sent an email in February 2025 seeking to begin a criminal investigation of Musk. At the time, Musk was a special government employee overseeing DOGE. Gounaud's complaint centered on Musk announcing on X his plan to have all government employees share five things they worked on that day. "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," Gounaud 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." Grassley later criticized the former FBI agent in a post on X. JACK SMITH'S SENATE PHONE RECORDS PROBE TURNS TO VERIZON'S HANDLING OF SUBPOENAS "Here is an email I released 2day showing an FBI agent who was ready2 open a CRIMINAL CASE all bc Elon Musk asked govt bureaucrats 2 report 5 things they did in a wk," Grassley wrote. "Compare that 2 Iowans who work frm sunup to sundown EVERY DAY Washington rlly is an island surrounded by reality." The document dump also shows that Giardina emailed at least seven times over the course of four weeks beginning in January 2017 asking to be assigned to Crossfire Hurricane. The findings of the investigation were handed off to special counsel Robert Mueller a few months later in May. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER The emails show that Giardina was in correspondence with Thibault, who Grassley accused of violating the Hatch Act. The allegation stemmed from Thibault resharing a post on Twitter by the Lincoln Project, which called Trump a "psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man." The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) opened an investigation into Thibault, but before the investigation ended he retired from the FBI in August 2022. In January 2024, the U.S. of Special Counsel determined Thibault did violate the Hatch Act with his retweet, but only issued a warning letter and closed the case. Thibault is included in several emails sent by Giardina to former Supervising Agent Joe Pientka. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP "Based on the records known to date, that case didn’t advance," Grassley said. "His efforts, as well as the case he tried to open on Senator Sinema, undercut public statements by former FBI officials that agents don’t get to pick their cases." Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment.