President Trump has suggested attacks against Tesla are a coordinated effort to intimidate the billionaire Elon Musk, but an internal intelligence assessment did not support that claim and warned against conflating legal protests against Mr. Musk with vandalism to his property.
The attacks on Tesla vehicles and facilities “appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night, making identification and arrest of the actors difficult,” officials with the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security wrote in an intelligence bulletin dated March 21 and obtained by The New York Times.
The initial assessment, shared with law enforcement agencies across the country and subject to change as investigations proceed, was based on an analysis of vandalism investigations in nine states over the past two months. It concluded that the attacks, which included firing gunshots, spraying graffiti, smashing windows and setting vehicles on fire, were “rudimentary” and not intended to injure people.
The people taking these actions “may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes,” but their “tactics can cause accidental or intentional bodily harm” to bystanders and first responders, the officials wrote in the report.
While law enforcement agencies should aggressively pursue people committing those acts, they should not investigate “constitutionally protected activity” directed at Mr. Musk, who has overseen a far-reaching effort to reduce the size and function of the federal government, they added.
Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the Tesla attacks as “domestic terrorism.” The director of the F.B.I., Kash Patel, reiterated that assessment on Monday, saying it was investigating what he described as an increase in violent activity.
The bulletin did not explicitly identify the vandalism as “domestic violent extremism,” the term the government uses to describe domestic terrorism, although it cited political motives for the attacks. Its only mention of domestic violent extremism was an assessment of the difficulty in determining extremists’ “intent to commit violence.”
Mr. Trump suggested last week the vandalism was paid for “by people very highly political on the left,” without providing evidence.
A few days later, Ms. Bondi said she would prosecute “those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” echoing Mr. Trump’s claim.
A spokesman for Ms. Bondi said in a text message that the report “could not possibly include all the current information” given that the investigation was continuing, adding that leaks to the news media could “jeopardize serious terrorism investigations.”
Ms. Bondi has often praised and defended Mr. Musk, whom she has described as one of her close friends. On Sunday, Ms. Bondi suggested she might investigate Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, for telling attendees at an online anti-Musk rally that the world’s richest man needed to be “taken down” — even though Ms. Crockett said she was calling for political action, not violence.
“She is an elected public official, so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk, and we’re going to fight to protect all of the Tesla owners throughout this country,” Ms. Bondi said of Ms. Crockett during an appearance on Fox.
Mr. Patel echoed Mr. Trump and his allies in denouncing the vandalism.
“This is domestic terrorism,” he wrote on X. “Those responsible will be pursued, caught, and brought to justice.”
The attacks on Tesla facilities have intensified as opposition to Mr. Musk has grown.
Police arrested a 26-year-old woman a week ago for spraypainting anti-Musk messages on the front windows of a Tesla facility in Buffalo Grove, Ill. That same day, vandals broke windows and defaced a dealership in the San Diego area with swastikas and slogans.
Later in the week, unknown attackers fired more than a dozen shots at a Tesla dealership in Tigard, Ore., damaging some of the vehicles and store windows, followed by the firebombing of several Cybertrucks at a Tesla facility in Kansas City.
On Monday, several unexploded incendiary devices were found at a Tesla dealership in Austin that has been the site of anti-Musk protests. They were removed without incident.
