The new Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Kash Patel has reportedly told the agency's staff to ignore Elon Musk's request to justify their work or lose their jobs.

"For now, please pause any responses," reads a message sent by Patel on Saturday to all FBI personnel, calling for employees to wait for a coordinated response from the bureau.

Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been tapped by President Donald Trump to shrink the size of the federal government, which he has called "bloated" and full of "people that are unnecessary."

Patel's pushback seems to show that not all Trump officials may be onboard with Musk's aggressive cuts to the federal workforce.

Since Trump's inauguration, thousands of federal employees have been fired or have accepted the administration's offer to resign now and receive six months of wages.

While mass layoffs have sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, unions, and members of the public, Trump has stood by DOGE and Musk's work, expressing his approval of what he called a "force of super-geniuses."

On Saturday, Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," the Tesla CEO said in a post. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

>https://www.newsweek.com/kash-patel-fbi-staff-ignore-elon-musk-demand-doge-2034948