As President Trump’s deployment of federal agents in Washington to crack down on street crime enters its second month, the effects are becoming clear. While crime keeps falling, the other investigative work of the F.B.I. is being delayed, frustrating law enforcement officials and leading some to quit.
At the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, a handful of veteran lawyers stepped down recently. The moves quickened the erosion of experience in the office, which was already understaffed before Mr. Trump ordered National Guard troops and hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers to patrol the streets of the capital.
At the F.B.I., many agents focused on financial fraud and public corruption now spend two or three nights a week patrolling, significantly slowing the progress of their regular work, including witness interviews, search warrants and planning meetings, according to people familiar with the bureau’s priorities. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal staffing challenges. Similar delays are also affecting counterintelligence work, these people said.
“The Trump administration’s show of force is stripping away resources that should be used to investigate other serious crime,” said Mike Romano, a former federal prosecutor in Washington. “Agents who should be investigating financial fraud and public corruption aren’t doing that work.”
Such complaints ring hollow to many Trump administration officials. When one senior Justice Department official was told that the demands of the crackdown were overtaxing agents, he replied that they should “drink more coffee,” according to a person familiar with the conversation.
In a statement, the F.B.I.’s Washington field office said that its personnel had maintained the office’s pace on a host of national security and criminal cases, including pursuing child predators.
Still, the fallout from the crackdown offers a window into how the day-to-day operations of the bureau have been disrupted under the director, Kash Patel, who has turned the agency’s focus to Mr. Trump’s directives on policing in the capital and immigration nationwide. Many within the Justice Department expect the president’s mission in Washington to last for the rest of the year.
Current and former law enforcement officials say F.B.I. agents have been stretched so thin that none of the bureau’s priorities are getting the full attention they deserve. The F.B.I. has always played a role in fighting violent crime and, since the Sept. 11 attacks, in immigration enforcement. But now those priorities are swamping some of the more complex, sensitive investigative work that the bureau is best equipped to tackle.
Most significant federal criminal investigations take months, if not years, to complete, so the effects of a one-month reassignment are not necessarily obvious or lasting. But as the president’s mission in Washington continues, there is a growing sense among rank-and-file agents and prosecutors that the federal law enforcement agency’s best work is suffering in order to pursue cases that are often marginal and in some instances simply not worth bringing.
This month, Mr. Patel issued an all-staff email, declaring in bold type that the F.B.I.’s mission had not changed and that the bureau had the staffing it needed. Under budget cuts by the Trump administration, the agency has lost thousands of agents and support staff members.
“Crushing violent crime and protecting national security are intertwined, and both are crucial components of safeguarding America,” Mr. Patel wrote, adding that senior managers had the authority to make personnel assignments “based on the specific need of the region.” “Especially when we are surging toward special initiatives,” he added, F.B.I. managers “have the flexibility to shift resources to meet mission needs.”
In its statement, the F.B.I. said Mr. Patel had given the bureau’s special agents in charge the independence and flexibility to decide how to run their offices most effectively.
The federal court system in Washington is also straining under a surge of cases, some of which judges and grand juries have rejected as overcharged or based on improper police work preceding the arrest. In recent days, a grand jury refused to indict Paul A. Bryant, a lawyer accused of throwing his shoulder into a National Guardsman after yelling, “These are our streets!”
It is extremely rare for a grand jury to decline to indict a person based on a prosecutor’s account of the alleged crime. Many veteran prosecutors say they have never experienced a single “no true bill,” the term for rejecting a proposed indictment, even in careers lasting decades. But in the last few weeks, it has happened more than a half-dozen times.
Some lawyers compared the surge in cases to the torrent of cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump riot at the Capitol. After that, several lawyers noted, the U.S. attorney’s office went on a hiring spree, and judges were generally able to handle the increased caseload.
Now, however, the prosecutor’s office is losing experienced lawyers at a debilitating pace, and the courts are struggling to ensure that some of those arrested are brought before a judge in the 48-hour period required by law.
In a statement, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said turnover was common.
“Our mission is simple: fight crime and make D.C. safe again. This is the largest U.S. attorney’s office in the country, and it is not unusual to see movement of staff,” she said. “We welcome new attorneys who have a passion for law and order and believe in President Trump’s mission to protect those who live, work and visit our nation’s capital.”
Adam Goldman contributed reporting.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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