When it rains, it pours, especially on Tesla Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk these days. On Tuesday, reports revealed the company is now under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department relating to tweets Musk made last month.

First reported by Bloomberg, the probe opened by the DoJ will look at statements Musk (pictured) made in August. Musk caused confusion and mayhem when he tweeted that he was thinking about taking the company private and had “funding secured.”

Tesla’s shares spiked after Musk’s tweets, but a deal with a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund to take the company private, it seems, was anything but secured. It turned out that indeed Musk had been hasty to make such an announcement and the company will not be going private.

Following the report, which followed earlier news regarding an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possibly misleading investors, shares plummeted 7 percent today before recovering somewhat to a decline of 3.4 percent.

“Last month, following Elon’s announcement that he was considering taking the company private, Tesla received a voluntary request for documents from the DOJ and has been cooperative in responding to it,” Tesla said in a statement that was released Tuesday following Bloomberg’s report. “We have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any other formal process. We respect the DOJ’s desire to get information about this and believe that the matter should be quickly resolved as they review the information they have received.”

Often regarded as a somewhat maverick CEO, and without doubt committed to the cause, Musk himself has admitted that his ambitions and also his impulsiveness have taken a toll.

Musk has called the last year the most “difficult and painful year of my career.” He may not have helped matters when he appeared on a Joe Rogan podcast waxing artificial intelligence end-of -world scenarios and trying some of Rogan’s marijuana.

If that didn’t spook investors, Musk is also being sued by British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, whom Musk had called a “child rapist” and a “pedo” in July, statements that right now look outlandish in view of a lack of any evidence.

Unsworth had earlier rankled Musk after calling his efforts to use a SpaceX-made submarine to help Thai boys trapped in a cave a public relations stunt. The lawsuit is looking for only $75,000 in damages, chump change for the billionaire CEO, but his rash words don’t exactly reflect a stable state of mind.

Photo: Joe Rogan/YouTube