Trump administration officials have pressured six senior FBI officials, as well as the heads of many field offices, to leave their posts by Monday or face termination, NBC reported on Friday.
Additionally, the Department of Justice fired two dozen federal prosecutors involved in the January 6 investigations on the same day.
The FBI was ordered to provide by Tuesday a list of all employees who worked on a 2024 criminal case brought by the Justice Department against leaders of Hamas, according to a memo seen by Reuters. A source briefed on the matter also said the FBI was asked to provide a list of employees who worked on the two Trump cases brought by Smith.
Acting Deputy Attorney-General Emil Bove on Thursday told the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot, which was the largest Justice Department probe in modern US history, two anonymous sources briefed on the matter said.
“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Driscoll wrote in the memo, as reported by NBC. “I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane.”
Who lost their job?
That memo ordered eight FBI officials to resign or be fired, saying that their participation in the Jan. 6 cases represented part of what Trump has called the “weaponization” of government.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the administration is looking to identify potentially hundreds of federal justice employees for termination, citing three anonymous individuals familiar with the matter.
The shakeup, detailed in two memos seen by Reuters and by three sources familiar with the matter, is the Trump administration’s latest move to remake the US criminal justice system since he returned to the presidency last week. A group representing FBI agents issued a rare public warning of the potential for hundreds of firings at the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The FBI Agents Association, a membership group of more than 14,000 active and former FBI agents, called the moves “outrageous” in a Friday statement.
“Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for failure,” the association added.
NBC reported that the six senior-most federal employees who lost their jobs are Robert Wells of the National Security Branch; Ryan Young of the Intelligence Branch; Robert Nordwall of Criminal and Cyber Response; Arlene Gaylord of Information Technology; Jackie Maguire of Science and Technology; and J. William Rivers, of human resources.
‘That’s a good thing’
According to NBC, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he did not know about the removals.
“We have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said. “They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn’t involved in that. I’ll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished.”
The president added that he thought that some senior Justice Department officials needed to be removed from their posts.
“If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing because they were very bad. They were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization,” he said. “They used the Justice Department to go after their political opponent, which in itself is illegal, and obviously it didn’t work.”
However, not all Washington officials agree with Trump’s cuts.
“At a time when we are facing a multitude of threats to the homeland … it is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging dozens of the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” Democratic US Senator Mark Warner said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
Mark Zaid, a veteran attorney who specialized in federal employment law, told the Washington Post that a mass dismissal of federal agents would be legally risky for the Trump administration.
Zaid noted that FBI employees must receive a written notice of proposed punishment with a justification detailing the standards they violated. Employees also have a two-stage opportunity to appeal.
“What this administration is doing is, they are acting so recklessly and with disregard to any laws or norms, they are making a ton of errors in order to satisfy their outspoken base that seeks retribution,” Zaid said, as reported by the Washington Post. “And they are creating a lot of legal claims.”
Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, told a US Senate panel on Thursday during his confirmation hearing that he would protect the bureau’s 37,000 employees against “political retribution” if he were confirmed.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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