New FBI director Kash Patel has told employees of his agency to refrain from responding to emails from the Donald Trump administration. .
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers were given within 48 hours to explain what they had achieved to the Office of Human Resources Management (OPM), causing confusion across major institutions, including top US law enforcement agencies.
However, the FBI director — confirmed by the Senate on Thursday — lowered the demand. According to ABC News, the agency was seeking additional guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice in the next step.
“The FBI representative may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel’s message read. “The FBI is responsible for all review processes through the director’s office and will follow the FBI procedures to carry out reviews. If more information is required, we will adjust the answer. Please pause the response for now. .”
Patel’s missaib indicated that he is expected to be appointed as the head of the Alcohol Department, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on Sunday.
Separately, John Durham, the top federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, also sent a message to his staff, according to the outlet.
“Of course, most of our work is law enforcement sensitive (in addition to many categorized jobs), so even assuming this is legal, we’ll be careful about how we handle this investigation. It needs to be. As mentioned earlier, the deadline is not until 11:59pm on Monday, so there is plenty of time,” Durham wrote in his letter.
Musk, who was superficially tasked with cutting government costs during Donald Trump’s second presidency, telegraphed extraordinary demands on his social media network on Saturday.
“In line with (Trump’s) instructions, all federal employees will receive an email promptly requesting a request to understand what they did last week,” Musk said, “but he Posted on X, owned by. “A failure to respond will be considered a resignation.”
Shortly afterwards, federal employees, including judges, court staff and federal prison staff, received three lines of emails containing the instructions. CC’s 5 bullets with what you achieved last week. ”
The reply deadline was listed at 11:59pm on Monday, but the email did not include mask social media threats regarding those who failed to respond.
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The latest, unusual directive from Musk’s team injected a new sense of confusion into plagued institutions, including the National Weather Service, the State Department and the federal court system. Instructed employees not to respond.
“Elon Musk and the Trump administration are totally at odds with federal employees and the vital services they provide,” said the chairman of the United States Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 workers in the federal government. It shows that it shows Americans.”
“For hundreds of thousands of veterans wearing second uniforms in civil servants, duties against privileged and unelected billionaires with this touch who have never performed an hour-long run. It is cruel and rude to be forced to justify AFGE President Everett Kelley said:
It has already been forced by thousands of government officials who have already been expelled from federal workers or offered to buy them in the first month of the Trump administration. Both the White House and the so-called Government Efficiency Bureau (DOGE) of Musk have planned “massive cuts” in fires for both new and career workers, bringing trillions of dollars in federal grant funds I told the agency leader to freeze it.
There have been no official numbers for the total number of shots and layoffs so far, but The Associated Press has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers affected. Many work outside of Washington. The cuts include thousands of people including Veteran Affairs, Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Agency, and National Park Services.
On Friday, Musk celebrated his new role at a conservative gathering by waving a giant chainsaw in the air. He called it a “chainsaw for bureaucrats,” and said that the federal government “waste is pretty much everywhere.”
