Former F.B.I. officials are starting a group to help embattled bureau employees grapple with the Trump administration’s rapid efforts to reshape its agency, saying that the work force is under incredible strain under its director, Kash Patel.
The group, called the F.B.I. Support Network, is an offshoot of the Justice Connection organization, made up of former Justice Department employees who offer legal, mental health or job search services to current agency employees.
The former agents, analysts and executives behind the network said they formed it because F.B.I. agents, analysts and support staff need assistance from people who understand the unique aspects of the bureau’s work culture and employment rules.
“There’s an incredible amount of tension inside the agency right now,” said Michael Mason, a former senior executive in the bureau. “We want our colleagues who are still in the service of the F.B.I. to know there are people out here who recognize what is happening. People are being fired without any due process as the Justice Department is being weaponized in a way that is totally unfamiliar to those of us who served long and distinguished careers there.”
Among its members are Brian Driscoll, who briefly became the acting director of the bureau in early 2025 shortly after Mr. Trump took office, only to be fired in August after repeatedly clashing with the administration over its demands to fire agents who had worked on cases related to President Trump.
“It’s time for those of us who served our country with the F.B.I. to offer our assistance to the special agents, intelligence analysts and the professional staff who are under attack,” Mr. Driscoll said in a video announcing the new group. “Those facing these unprecedented times are not alone.”
Mr. Patel has repeatedly denied firing agents for political reasons, insisting that the frequent terminations are meant to rid the bureau of people biased against the president and his allies. Such statements have led to angry confrontations in congressional hearings, with Democratic lawmakers accusing him of lying to Congress.
Michael Feinberg, a former counterintelligence agent, emphasized that the dismissals underscored how drastically the bureau had changed. “Law enforcement and national security work should be resolutely apolitical,” he said. “You investigate threats and prosecute criminals without fear or favor. Seeing that norm not just eroded but purposely destroyed is fundamentally changing the nature and culture of the F.B.I.”
Mr. Feinberg added that Mr. Patel’s denials only showed the shift in the bureau’s approach. There is now a “wide gulf between what the director says in public and in testimony before Congress, and what the work force sees happening to their colleagues on a daily basis,” he said. “I think the way a lot of employees feel right now is that at least some senior career executives have been willing to compromise with Kash Patel in those matters in an effort to secure their own employment. It’s difficult to articulate how much of a betrayal of the F.B.I. ethos this is.”
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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