Current and former FBI officials tell NBC News that the Trump administration has pushed away several leaders of FBI field offices nationwide as well as all six of the agency’s top executives.
Among them were federal prosecutors who looked into the Jan. 6 rioters and the well-known head of the Washington, D.C., field office, which was involved in President Donald Trump’s prosecutions. There are perhaps two dozen prosecutors affected, according to a legislative aide.
The dismissed prosecutors were informed in a letter that their removal was due to their involvement in the prosecutions on January 6. Trump just issued an executive order describing the Jan. 6 prosecutions as a serious national injustice that has been inflicted on the American people for the past four years.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove requested a list of all FBI personnel who worked on January 6 cases for “a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.” This information was conveyed to the FBI workforce Friday night by Brian J. Driscoll, Jr., the bureau’s acting director.
“We recognize that this request includes thousands of workers nationwide who have contributed to these investigations,” Driscoll wrote. One of those workers is me.
The reasons behind the removal of the FBI and DOJ officers were not immediately apparent. Neither the DOJ nor the FBI would comment.
The dismissals occurred the day after Kash Patel, Trump’s choice for FBI director, stated under oath at his Senate confirmation hearing that all FBI personnel would be shielded from political persecution.
On Friday afternoon, Trump denied knowing about the removals when questioned about them by a reporter.
No, but some of the people over there are really awful. Trump claimed that it was militarized to an unprecedented degree. They targeted several people, including myself, but they also targeted many others. No, I had nothing to do with that. After this is over, I’ll have to see what’s happening.
However, Trump went on to say that he believed some FBI personnel should be fired.
It’s a wonderful thing if they fired any of the employees there because they were awful. He claimed that they were really dishonest individuals who seriously harmed our nation by weaponizing it. They pursued their political opponent through the Justice Department, which is illegal in and of itself, and it clearly failed.
According to two senior law enforcement officials, David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, was informed on Thursday that he would be let go and is getting ready to depart the agency.
Former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump and the extensive probe into the disturbance at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, both significantly included special agents from the FBI’s Washington field office.
According to the sources, six senior executives at the FBI’s Washington headquarters were also evicted. Among them were J. William Rivers from human resources; Robert Nordwall from criminal and cyber response; Arlene Gaylord from information technology; Jackie Maguire from science and technology; Ryan Young from intelligence; and Robert Wells, who was in charge of the national security division.
According to the current and past officials, everyone but Gaylord is eligible for retirement with a full pension, and many choose to do so. Despite the fact that they could have challenged their dismissals under the civil service rules governing nonpolitical appointments, they chose to do so, according to legal experts. They all ascended the bureau’s ranks over the course of decades.
According to both current and former authorities, Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge in Miami, was also fired.
In a note that NBC News was able to get, Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas field office, informed staffers that he had been dismissed by officials at the FBI headquarters in Washington.
Evans wrote, “I was told by FBIHQ today that the Department of Justice’s executive leadership intends to remove me and a number of other FBI executives from the agency’s rolls as soon as Monday morning.” As you might guess, this decision has come as a shock to me because I was not provided any explanation.
Evans collaborated extensively with Christopher Wray, the FBI director Trump appointed in 2017 and fired this month, at headquarters before to his transfer to Las Vegas.
Past removals
In the past, significant changes have been enforced by new FBI directors. When President Bill Clinton chose career agent Louis Freeh as director of the FBI in 1993, he sent hundreds of supervisors out into the field from Washington.
However, that came after Freeh was confirmed by the Senate to lead the FBI for ten years. Those in charge of the bureau in an acting capacity, including interim director Brian Driscoll, have ties to Patel, despite the fact that he has not been verified and is not employed by the bureau.
Additionally, a former assistant of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a prominent FBI critic, and someone with ties to Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been added to the Trump team’s director advisory council. What part, if any, these individuals played in the terminations is unknown.
According to a top FBI official, people are shocked. This is unlike anything they had ever seen.
According to another FBI officer, this is not done. These are the best individuals.
The director is the only political appointee in the FBI, which is staffed and managed by nonpartisan career public officials. FBI directors have already attempted to distance themselves from the presidents who appointed them, and in certain cases, such as Freeh’s investigation of Clinton, they have even looked into those presidents.
In an effort to maintain the FBI director’s independence from the White House and to serve as a check on the director’s authority, the 10-year term was established. For almost 40 years, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the FBI, using its expertise in obtaining intelligence to intimidate and bribe politicians.
The FBI today is even more potent than it was in the 1970s. It boasts one of the best-trained paramilitary units, a fleet of planes, advanced technical capabilities, and a large capacity for electronic surveillance. FBI agents conduct some of the most delicate investigations in the U.S. government, such as looking for terrorists and spies, in addition to criminal investigations.
Some agents are expecting for improvements under the incoming administration. According to reports, the newly hired advisors are concentrating on the bureau’s organizational structure, accountability, leadership and training, and technology. In line with Freeh, Patel has stated that he prefers to have more agents in the field and fewer in headquarters.
Former agents concerned
Trump, according to former FBI officials, is bringing in a new era that experts believe may potentially be dangerous and drastically alter the agency.
The removals may damage the FBI, according to NBC News contributor and former FBI counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi. He claimed that the forced resignation of some of the FBI’s most seasoned and successful officials jeopardizes our national security.
Another FBI officer stated that this is having a significant chilling impact. This, I suppose, is the intended effect. People who can retire are giving it serious thought. Finance, intelligence, program managers, etc. The institutional knowledge base is this.
They are conflicted between the mission and retirement, but the general consensus is that they would prefer to retire than remain in this setting, the source continued.
Patel promised to focus on the future rather than the past at his confirmation hearing.
He testified that the FBI will not be weaponized. There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI should I be confirmed as FBI director.