The Trump administration plans to scrutinize scores of F.B.I. agents involved in Trump-related investigations, setting the stage for a possible purge targeting not only the bureau’s leaders but also rank-and-file agents, according to people familiar with the matter.
On Friday, interim leaders at the Justice Department instructed the F.B.I. to notify around a half-dozen high-ranking career officials that they were being terminated, according to a person with direct knowledge of the move. It is not clear who the officials are, or why they were targeted.
But a much larger group — which includes dozens and perhaps hundreds of lower-ranking career agents who had limited decision-making authority — are expected to notified over the next few days that they face possible termination, demotion or transfer under a not-yet-specified internal review process, the person said.
The targeted agents could include investigators who worked on some of the cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in the U.S. Capitol, but might also include investigations that have no direct link to President Trump or the attack.
The move to enact the plan comes just one day after Kash Patel, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the F.B.I., testified before Congress that the bureau would not be targeted for political reasons.
A department spokesman, and Mr. Patel’s representative, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. F.B.I. officials declined to comment.
“All F.B.I. employees will be protected against political retribution,” Mr. Patel said during his confirmation earing on Thursday.
On that same day, a different handful of officials were notified that they had the option of stepping down or would be dismissed.
Privately, however, senior officials at the Justice Department have asked for the names of thousands of agents who worked on cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
In a statement, the F.B.I. Agents Association said that if true, “these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump.”
“Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats,” the statement continued.
Such removals and firings would also contradict public statements made by Pam Bondi, Mr. Trump’s pick for attorney general, and Mr. Patel, the organization said.
The people familiar with the planning spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. If the administration follows through, it would be a singular moment in the F.B.I.’s history, and fly in the face of decades worth of civil service laws that are meant to protect the integrity and professionalism of the government work force.
Mr. Patel, speaking under oath, also promised to follow established bureau procedures in seeking terminations or transfers, including referring accusations of improper conduct by prosecutors to the Justice Department’s inspector general before taking action.
F.B.I. officials were already bracing for swift changes, but the forced retirements and the dismissal of senior agents in the field and at headquarters this week has led to fear at the bureau, where agents wonder if they will be fired for investigations that angered Mr. Trump.
Two of the senior agents who ran field offices and were forced out had been targeted by conservatives.
“They are hollowing out our professional law enforcement community,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat who questioned Mr. Patel at the confirmation hearing. “It is the absolute height of arrogance to be doing exactly what their F.B.I. nominee promised not to do — literally the day after he made the promise. It’s surreal and sickening and should be disregarded as disqualifying for this nominee.”
Retribution has been swift at the Justice Department as about a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two criminal investigations into Mr. Trump for the special counsel Jack Smith were fired.
Mr. Trump once called the Jan. 6 riot a “heinous attack,” but in one of his first official acts he granted sweeping clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the assault. He issued pardons to most of the defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, told Mr. Patel during his confirmation hearing that lawmakers would hold him accountable if he tried to exact revenge at the F.B.I., saying two wrongs did not make a right.
“And there have been and may still be some bad people there, and you’ve got to find out who the bad people are and get rid of them, in accordance with due process and the rule of law,” Mr. Kennedy said. “And then you’ve got to lift up the good people. Don’t go over there and burn that place down. Go over there and make it better.”
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