U.S. tells federal agencies they can ignore Musk ultimatum

Elon Musk Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg (Aaron Schwartz/Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management told HR officials that employees not replying to an email asking what they did last week will not be taken as a resignation and staff were not obliged to respond to the email, according to a Justice Department internal communication.

Billionaire and Republican President Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk had ordered for U.S. government workers to justify their jobs.

Musk’s order opened divisions in the Trump administration. Some agencies had told workers to respond to the billionaire by a Monday night deadline and others told workers to ignore him.

Musk’s directive to the nation’s 2.3 million civil-service workers to provide a five-point summary of their work by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time (0459 GMT) raised questions about how much authority the world’s richest person can wield in Trump’s government as he leads an effort to slash the federal payroll.

The Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Daniel Levine and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)