According to current and former FBI officials who spoke to NBC News, FBI executives considered defying Justice Department orders that they provide the names of FBI officers engaged in Capitol riot cases, but finally determined they had to go by what attorneys considered a legal order.
Sending just the names of managers and top executives was one of the solutions that were being considered. However, the FBI’s general counsel determined that the Trump Justice Department’s request for all of the names was lawful and that cooperation was mandatory.
The decision was made in response to a letter of complaint that former FBI Director William Webster and the FBI Agents Association, an organization that represents agents, submitted to congressional leaders last Friday, denouncing the dismissal of eight senior FBI officials.
According to the letter, “these actions, which lack transparency and due process, are creating dangerous distractions, undermining the Bureau’s ability to work with state, local, and international partners to make America safe again, and imperiling ongoing investigations.”
The Society of Retired Special Agents, a nonprofit that advocates for former FBI agents, encouraged its members to contact their political representatives to voice their opposition to the possible termination of January 6 case agents.
According to the message, these staff members were tasked with looking into these incidents as part of their regular responsibilities. The whole FBI staff is now sidetracked from their vital duties, despite the fact that they risk their lives every day to defend this nation.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee referred to the recent dismissals and reassignments of top officials in the FBI and Justice Department under the Trump Administration as a concerning national security issue and wanted answers from the officials.
Sen. Richard Durbin and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wanted documents pertaining to the personnel activities of the second Trump administration in letters to incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi and other high-ranking Trump appointments, which NBC News exclusively obtained.
According to the Democratic senators, at least eight senior FBI managers had been fired, and up to 20 senior career Justice Department attorneys had been reassigned or removed. According to the letter, many people were afraid that FBI agents who worked on Capitol riot investigations were about to undergo a major purge.
The letter claimed that President Trump had won the 2024 presidential election. “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 eleven Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, responded to NBC News’ request for comment.
“The American people gave President Trump a mandate, and this election was about reformers versus permanent Washington,” he added in a statement. Now, President Trump is carrying out his pledge to implement reforms at organizations that are in dire need of them, such as the FBI. It will be a long four years for Democrats, so I advise them to pace themselves with the outrage BINGO they are playing.
Democrats try to respond
The letter was sent as Democrats attempted to counter the Trump administration’s shock and awe campaign to impose massive new personnel layoffs and control over federal agencies in ways that some experts believe may be unlawful.
“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 stated, in light of the increased danger picture facing America.
Minority Democrats are powerless to stop the confirmation of Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, who is up for committee vote next week, or to enforce their document requests. Additionally, Republicans on the committee have notably been quiet on the new developments at the FBI.
The committee chairman, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has not publicly commented on what current and former FBI officials are describing as a crisis at the FBI and has not responded to a request for comment.
Patel was also contacted by NBC News, but he declined to respond via a spokesperson.
During his confirmation hearing last Thursday, Patel informed senators that he was not aware of any plans to fire large numbers of people. A few hours later, it was announced that eight senior executives, including the chiefs of field operations in Miami and Washington, had been fired by the Justice Department.
The FBI has been rocked by fears of mass firings since the Trump administration started attempting to get the names of all FBI employees who worked on cases on January 6. In a memo sent to staff members over the weekend, acting director Brian Driscoll stated that FBI agents cannot be punished or fired without due process, including hearings.
In a direct communication to staff members criticizing the Trump administration, James Dennehy, the head of the New York field office, went even farther. He wrote, “We are in the midst of a battle today… as good people are being walked out of the FBI.” “And because they carried out their duties in compliance with FBI policy and the law, others are being singled out.
Ousted prosecutors collect their belongings
On Monday, several federal prosecutors who were dismissed for their roles in cases from January 6 returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia to retrieve their personal items and drop off their government-owned equipment.
When he came out of the building, Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin of Washington, D.C., refused to comment to NBC News. Martin, the chief advocate for the theft who was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, has promoted defendants in the Capitol attack and disseminated conspiracy theories about it.
Shortly after Martin’s departure, a number of the former federal prosecutors came out of the building carrying their personal belongings. One of them received flowers from her father.
The prosecutors were placed on probation when they were fired last Friday night. They had been hired to take on cases from January 6 and assist in handling the office’s heavy docket of Capitol attack cases.
Trump’s executive order pardoning and commuting the rioters’ sentence was cited in the wording of their dismissal letters, but none of them were charged with any misconduct. It characterized the prosecutions on January 6 as a serious national injustice committed against the American people.