FBI executives contemplated resisting Justice Department demands that they turn over the names of FBI personnel involved in Capitol riot cases but ultimately decided they must comply with what lawyers deemed a lawful order, current and former FBI officials told NBC News.
Among the options under consideration was to send only the names of managers and senior executives. But the FBI’s office of general counsel decided that the demand by the Trump Justice Department for all the names was legal and that compliance was not optional.
The FBI Agents Association, a group representing agents, and former FBI Director William Webster sent a letter of protest to congressional leaders condemning the removal of eight senior FBI officials Friday.
“These actions, which lack transparency and due process, are creating dangerous distractions," the letter says, "imperiling ongoing investigations, and undermining the Bureau’s ability to work with state, local, and international partners to make America safe again."
A group representing former FBI agents, the Society of Retired Special Agents, urged its members to call their elected officials to protest the potential punishment or firing of Jan. 6 case agents.
“These employees were assigned to investigate these cases as part of their normal duties,” the message said. “They put their lives on the line every day to protect this country and now the entire FBI workforce is distracted from their important responsibilities.”
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded answers from Trump administration Justice Department and FBI officials about the recent firings and re-assignments of senior officials in both law enforcement agencies, calling it “an alarming threat to national security.”’
In letters to incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top Trump appointees obtained exclusively by NBC News, Dick Durbin of Illinois and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded records related to the second Trump administration's personnel actions.
The Democratic senators said as many as 20 senior career Justice Department lawyers had been re-assigned or removed, and they noted the firings of at least eight senior FBI managers. The letter said there was widespread fear that a mass purge of FBI agents who worked on Capitol riot investigations is in the works.
“President Trump won the 2024 presidential election," the letter said. "But he does not have the authority to dismantle the federal civil service or replace dedicated, nonpartisan career officials at DOJ with those whose only qualifications are loyalty to President Trump rather than the Constitution and laws of the United States of America."
Only one of the 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee responded to requests for comment, Eric Schmitt of Missouri.
“President Trump was given a mandate by the American people, and this past election boiled down to the reformers versus permanent Washington,” he said in a statement. “President Trump is now doing exactly what he promised—enacting reforms at agencies that desperately need it, including the FBI. I suggest Democrats pace themselves with the outrage BINGO they are playing, it’s going to be a long four years for them.”
Democrats try to respond
Democrats are trying to respond to what has been a “shock and awe” campaign by the Trump administration to impose sweeping new staff cuts and take control of federal agencies in ways that some experts say may be illegal.
“As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these shocking removals and reassignments deprive DOJ and the FBI of experienced, senior leadership and decades of experience fighting violent crime, espionage, and terrorism,” the letter said.
Minority Democrats lack the power to enforce their document requests or to block the confirmation of Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to be FBI director, who faces a committee vote next week. And Republicans on the committee have been conspicuously silent about the events unfolding at the FBI recently.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, did not respond to a request for comment and has not said anything publicly about what current and former FBI officials are calling a crisis at the FBI.
Patel declined to comment through a spokesman.
Patel told senators at his confirmation hearing Thursday that he was aware of no plans for mass firings. Hours later, news broke that the Justice Department had forced out eight top executives, including the heads of the field offices in Miami and Washington.
The Trump administration also began efforts to obtain the names of every FBI employee who worked on Jan. 6 cases, sparking fears of a mass firing that have roiled the bureau. Acting Director Brian Driscoll told employees in a message over the weekend that FBI agents cannot be fired or disciplined without hearings and other due process.
James Dennehy, the head of the New York field office, went even further in an email to staff members challenging the Trump administration. “Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle ... as good people are being walked out of the FBI,” he wrote. “And others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy.”
Ousted prosecutors collect their belongings
Multiple federal prosecutors who were fired over their involvement in Jan. 6 cases returned to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., on Monday to drop off their government-owned devices and pick up their belongings.
Acting Washington U.S. Attorney Edward Martin declined to answer questions when he emerged from the building. Martin, a “stop the steal” advocate who was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has spread conspiracy theories about the attack and advocated for Capitol attack defendants.
Soon after Martin left, several of the ousted federal prosecutors emerged from the building with their personal items. The father of one of them gave her flowers.
Hired to take on Jan. 6 cases and help address the office’s large Capitol attack caseload, the prosecutors were on probationary status when they were dismissed Friday evening.
None of them were accused of wrongdoing, but the text of their dismissal letters quoted from Trump's executive order pardoning and commuting the rioters’ sentences. It described the Jan. 6 prosecutions as “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”
