Key US agencies tell staff not to answer Musk email on what they did last week Ana Faguy
Key US agencies tell staff not to answer Musk email
The FBI, the State Department, and the Pentagon were among the institutions that warned staff not to respond to the message. Other department heads urged employees to cooperate, while others recommended them to wait for more instructions before responding.
Musk stated that failing to answer by Monday at midnight will be construed as a resignation. President Donald Trump has yet to respond to the correspondence.
The contradicting directions perplexed hundreds of thousands of government workers, as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) task force leads an external drive to dramatically decrease government expenditure.
The letter was issued to millions of federal employees on Saturday evening, after Musk said on his social media platform X that government employees will “shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week”.
According to a copy of the email acquired by the BBC, staff were urged to answer in five bullet points, outlining their successes from the previous week but not divulging classified information.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s human resources office, confirmed the email’s authenticity.
The communication made no indication of whether refusing to comply may have an impact on work status, despite Musk’s social media statement that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The letter also appears to contradict an OPM evaluation made in February, which said that any answers to government-wide emails must be “explicitly voluntary”.
Later on Saturday, newly confirmed
Later on Saturday, newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel instructed his staff to “pause any responses” in a second email.
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel stated in a message obtained by CBS News.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures.”
The state department issued a similar response, stating that leadership will react on behalf of the agency.
“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” an email from Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary for management, stated.
The Pentagon informed its employees that “when and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM.”
According to sources, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the director of US espionage agencies all sent similar directives to their personnel.
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In a clue that the OPM email may have surprised several departments, a senior official at the Department of Justice wrote to workers on Saturday evening: “Media reports indicate the email was distributed to employees throughout the federal government.”
The statement went on to say that “at this point, we have no reason to believe this message is spam or malicious”.
Later on Saturday evening, a follow-up email was issued to emphasize that the OPM letter was “legitimate” and that “employees should be prepared to follow the instructions as requested”.
The Justice Department issued a warning to staff
The Justice Department issued a warning to staff: “Do not include any sensitive, confidential, or classified information in your response. If you have any questions about the contents of your response, please contact your supervisor. If we receive additional guidance or information, I will update all employees, as necessary.” Other agencies, including the Department of Transportation, Secret Service, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, also responded.
Other departments, such as the National Security Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have asked that staff wait for additional direction.
The OPM did not immediately answer to the BBC’s inquiries over whether any employees would be excluded.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal employees, called the letter “cruel and disrespectful” and vowed to sue.
It is unclear how the email impacts any of the approximately three million government employees who may not have had access to their emails this weekend.
Other federal employees, such as those at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were placed on leave within the previous month.
The post came hours after Trump lauded Musk’s social media activity, saying, “I would like to see him get more aggressive.”
In a letter to the Office of Personnel Management, the Democratic ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform criticized the instruction.
Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly said that the department should “immediately clarify that federal employees’ nonresponse to this ill-conceived, weekend email does not constitute resignation”.
“This threat is illegal, reckless, and yet another example of the cruel and arbitrary chaos Mr Musk is inflicting on the people’s government and its dedicated public servants.”
Most Republican members of Congress have defended Musk and his wider initiatives.
On Sunday, Congressman Mike Lawler of New York told ABC that Musk’s efforts were a “comprehensive, forensic audit of every department and agency in the federal government”.
Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, criticized Musk’s techniques while expressing support for Doge’s overall aim.
“If I could just say one thing to Elon Musk, it would be to add some compassion to this
