FBI Director Kash Patel instructed agents and support staff not to respond to the demand, telling them, “For now, please pause any responses.” News4’s Paul Wagner reports.
The deadline is looming for federal workers to respond to an email demanding to know what they did at work last week, although at least two government agencies now say that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has rescinded the order. News4 is awaiting confirmation from OPM.
The initial email, sent Saturday by OPM, asked federal workers to list five accomplishments made in the previous week, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Elon Musk posted Saturday afternoon on X that workers who failed to respond would lose their jobs — but the order has met with significant opposition, even from officials within the Trump administration.
As of late Monday afternoon, at least two government agencies — the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice — said workers did not need to answer the email.
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"There is no HHS expectation that employees respond to OPM and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond," the HHS told employees Monday, according to an email obtained by News4.
This guidance comes after conversations with OPM officials, the HHS said.
News4 has reached out to OPM for comment but has not yet heard back.
Justice Department employees also were told Monday that they did not need to respond to the message, according to emails seen by NBC News.
'Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,' Musk wrote Saturday
The news of OPM's order struck like a thunderbolt over the weekend, drawing immediate pushback from both the FBI and the State Department.
FBI Director Kash Patel instructed agents and support staff not to respond to the demand.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses," Patel told workers in an email confirmed by the Associated Press.
A similar order came from the State Department. Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers.
"No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their chain of command," Nagy wrote in part, according to an email obtained by the AP.
Unions representing federal workers reacted with fury. The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley, called Elon Musk an "out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire."
In a letter to OPM, Kelley wrote: "The email fails to identify any legal authority permitting OPM to demand the requested information... this hastily written email from OPM left many feeling undervalued and intimidated."
Meanwhile, Doreen Greenwald, national president of the union representing workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said, "The administration has not said how OPM will use this information or whether it will be used to instigate further attacks and illegal terminations against CFPB employees."
Those workers have been locked out of their offices and prevented from working the last two weeks. Now the signage for its headquarters at 17th and G streets NW is gone.
In recent days, more and more federal workers have been staging protests, including one by postal workers earlier Monday. Trump has said the new commerce secretary would be taking a look at the U.S. Postal Service with the idea of a possible merger.
