Johnathan Buma, who was arrested in March and is out on bail, claims in new interview that efforts to target Musk were ‘intense’_

A former FBI counterintelligence agent turned whistleblower has claimed he tried to gain access to Elon Musk in 2022 to warn the billionaire that he was the target of a covert Russian campaign seeking to infiltrate his inner circle, possibly to gain access to sensitive information.

Johnathan Buma, who was arrested by the FBI earlier this year on a misdemeanor charge of disclosing confidential information, said in an interview that he tried – but ultimately failed – to gain access to Musk to personally brief and “inoculate” him against “outreach from the Kremlin”.

Buma, who is on bail and living in Arizona after his 17 March arrest at New York’s Kennedy airport, spoke to both ZDF, the German broadcaster, and the Guardian. He has also recently filed paperwork to run as a Democratic candidate for a congressional House seat in Arizona.