The Trump administration plans to scrutinize thousands of F.B.I. agents involved in Jan. 6 investigations, setting the stage for a possible purge that goes far beyond the bureau’s leaders to target rank-and-file agents, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter.
The proposal came on a day that more than a dozen prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington who had worked on cases involving the Jan. 6 riot were told that they were being terminated.
The moves were a powerful indication that Mr. Trump has few qualms deploying the colossal might of federal law enforcement to punish perceived political enemies, even as his cabinet nominees offered sober assurances they would abide by the rule of law. Forcing out both agents and prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases would amount to a wide-scale assault on the Justice Department.
On Friday, interim leaders at the department instructed the F.B.I. to notify more than a half-dozen high-ranking career officials that they faced termination, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The New York Times.
The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, also told the acting leadership of the F.B.I. to compile a list of all agents and F.B.I. staff “assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions” relating to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day a mob of Trump supporters stormed through the halls of Congress.
In issuing his directive, Mr. Bove, who has overseen an opening volley of threats, firings and forced transfers since the inauguration, cited Mr. Trump’s executive order vowing to end “the weaponization of the federal government.”
Under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the government waged a “systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents,” including by deploying law enforcement to pursue its rivals, he said.
The memo also demands the names of agents who worked on a case against Hamas leadership, though it is not clear why it was added to the list of agents under scrutiny. Prosecutors and agents had disagreed about the merits of the case.
The office of the deputy attorney general “will commence a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary” against those F.B.I. agents, analysts and staff, according to the memo, which was addressed to Brian Driscoll, the acting F.B.I. director.
In an email to F.B.I. employees Friday night, Mr. Driscoll noted that he was among the agents who would be on such a list. The F.B.I. has been told to submit the list of names by Tuesday.
“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Mr. Driscoll wrote, who added that he and his deputy “are going to follow the law, follow F.B.I. policy and do what’s in the best interest of the work force and the American people — always.”
Later, the F.B.I.’s counterterrorism division sent an email to field offices around the country with instructions about filling a database with bureau personnel who worked on the cases — a number likely to be about 6,000.
People familiar with the internal discussions said that some Trump administration officials are moving to force scores, or possibly hundreds, of agents out of the F.B.I. in the coming days and weeks. Officials have discussed notifying a large number of agents that they face possible termination, demotion or transfer.
At the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, more than a dozen prosecutors who had worked on Jan. 6-related cases were told that they were being terminated, according to people familiar with the notices.
Those informed of their dismissals had been hired as the office struggled to manage what became the largest prosecution in the department’s history.
In another memo, Mr. Bove said the prosecutors in question had been short-term hires that were improperly made permanent staff during the Biden administration. “I will not tolerate subversive personnel actions,” he wrote.
Mr. Bove offered no evidence those targeted had done anything improper, illegal or unethical. Instead, he cited a legal technicality and questioned whether those targeted would allow the U.S. attorney’s office to “faithfully implement the agenda that the American people elected President Trump to execute.”
The moves come 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.
“All F.B.I. employees will be protected against political retribution,” Mr. Patel said during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Around the time that Mr. Patel appeared before the committee, a handful of senior F.B.I. employees were informed that they needed to resign in a matter of days or be fired, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to shake up the agency’s upper ranks.
The moves are highly unusual in part because they are happening before a director has been confirmed to take charge of the bureau. The timing of these moves — made while the nominations of Mr. Patel and Pam Bondi for attorney general are still pending — could lessen the blowback for them — or it could jeopardize their support among Republican senators.
A department spokesman, and Mr. Patel’s representative, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. F.B.I. officials declined to comment. The people familiar with the planning spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.
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.
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 immense unease. Agents are worried that they will be fired for investigations that angered Mr. Trump — especially those who worked on squads at the Washington field office on the criminal inquiry into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents as well as the inquiry into a fake electors’ scheme.
Two of the senior agents who ran field offices in Miami and Las Vegas and were forced out had been criticized by former agents with ties to Mr. Patel’s foundation, a nonprofit that Mr. Patel has said gives aid to a range of recipients, including the families of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot.
Some F.B.I. personnel expressed frustration that the bureau’s leadership provided little guidance as rumors circulated widely about firings and about colleagues being escorted out of field offices. Mr. Driscoll’s email Friday night ended some of that confusion, though it confirmed some of their deepest fears.
Jason Manning, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases, warned of the consequences.
“It will mean firing agents who investigate child sex crimes, violent crimes, immigration crimes, Chinese espionage and lots of other criminal activity that President Trump claims to care about,” he said. “Our country is significantly weaker and more dangerous because of this.”
The disarray in the bureau was also evident on its website, which notably omitted the name of the acting director, Mr. Driscoll. Inside the bureau, one person said that the atmosphere was sullen and that employees were startled by what was unfolding as top F.B.I. officials scrambled to complete the required retirement paperwork, with the agents turning in their badges.
Mr. Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, his acting deputy, said goodbye to their colleagues.
In an interview, Democratic lawmakers denounced the moves.
“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.”
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.
During Mr. Patel’s testimony on Thursday, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, told Mr. Patel 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.”
The F.B.I. has been in turmoil since Christopher A. Wray, the former director, stepped down before Mr. Trump took office. After Mr. Wray’s deputy abruptly resigned and shortly after Mr. Trump took office, the administration identified the wrong agent as acting director.
Instead of correcting the error, officials kept it in the hope that a new director would be quickly confirmed, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported.
Mr. Kissane, who had been the top counterterrorism agent in New York, had been widely believed to be in line to be acting director, several current and former agents said, with Mr. Driscoll, a decorated agent in the F.B.I.’s New York field office as the No. 2. But when the White House unveiled its website after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, Mr. Driscoll was named in the top job.
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