The US Secret Service is probing Elon Musk’s social media post from last Sunday questioning why no one has attempted to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk deleted the post after some resistance and issued another claiming it was a joke — but the Secret Service isn’t known for its sense of humor.
The agency told Bloomberg it was withholding records in response to a FOIA request because releasing them “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” Don’t rush to conclusions, though: The Secret Service routinely investigates even jokes or artistic expression on the off chance it could be a threat. Rap star Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, was interviewed in 2017 over song lyrics, for example, and “Last Week Tonight” senior writer Dan O’Brien was subpoenaed over a comedic article about how to kidnap the president’s daughter in 2009.
Musk has a history of making jokes many people don’t find very funny, and this isn’t even the first time it’s landed him in trouble with the feds. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued him in 2018 for claiming he had secured funding to make Tesla a private company at $420 a share, forcing him to claim this very obvious and immature weed joke was in fact a serious offer in federal court. We’re watching whether he learns to keep jokes to the group chat from here on out.
