Kash Patel to FBI employees on Elon Musk’s ‘justify-your-job’ email: ‘For now, please…’

FBI Director Kash Patel has instructed employees to hold off on responding to a federal productivity inquiry led by billionaire Elon Musk. According to an NBC report, the directive follows Musk’s recent announcement of a new measure requiring all US federal employees to justify their work.

"All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). According to a copy of the email seen by AFP, federal workers were asked to submit "approx. five bullets of what you accomplished last week." The email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), carried the subject line "What did you do last week?" and set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

What Kash Patel told FBI employees

Patel instructed FBI employees not to respond to the inquiry for now.

"FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The Office of the Director oversees all review processes and will conduct them according to FBI procedures," Patel wrote in an internal email, as reported by NBC.

"When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses," he added.

Donald Trump praised Elon Musk

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk's efforts to reshape the federal workforce while calling for more aggressive action in a social media post that drew swift response from the tech billionaire.

"ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE," Trump posted on his social media platform, adding "REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE."