Washington (AFP) – FBI agents who participated in the investigations that led to now-abandoned criminal charges against President Donald Trump are expected to be fired in a sweeping purge of the top US law enforcement organization, US media reported Friday. Dozens of FBI agents involved in the probe of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and some supervisors are also “being evaluated for possible removal,” CNN said, quoting people briefed on the matter.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the plan, said “officials are working to identify potentially hundreds (of FBI agents) for possible termination.” The newspaper stated that in addition to the purge at the FBI, about 30 federal prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases and were on probationary status had been dismissed. The Justice Department fired a number of officials on Monday who were involved in the prosecutions of Trump. A Justice Department official said the positions were being terminated because the acting attorney general did not believe they “could be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda.”
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NBC News reported that among those being fired at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were the heads of more than 20 FBI field offices, including those in Miami and Washington. According to CNN, at least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to “retire, resign or be fired by Monday.” The Post said that the FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, a veteran agent who was appointed by Trump to run the bureau until his nominee as director is confirmed by the Senate, had refused to approve the mass firings.
– ‘Brazen assault on the rule of law’ –
Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, strongly condemned the dismissals at the FBI and Justice Department. “The Trump Administration’s purge of dozens of DOJ and FBI officials involved in investigating Donald Trump and the January 6 rioters is a major blow to the FBI and Justice Department’s integrity and effectiveness,” Durbin said. “This is a brazen assault on the rule of law that also severely undermines our national security and public safety,” he added. “Unelected Trump lackeys are carrying out widespread political retribution against our nation’s career law enforcement officials.”
The FBI Agents Association, a non-profit group that advocates for FBI employees, stated that if the reports of widespread dismissals are true, the actions are “fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents.” The Association emphasized, “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.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal cases against Trump, resigned earlier this month. Smith charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House. Neither case came to trial, and Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after the Republican won November’s presidential election.
On his first day in the White House last week, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol in a bid to block congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. FBI director Christopher Wray resigned following Trump’s reelection, and the president has named Kash Patel, his former advisor and staunch loyalist, to head the bureau. Patel, at his confirmation hearing before a Senate committee on Thursday, was asked if he was aware of any plans to punish FBI agents who were involved in the investigations of Trump. “I am not aware of that,” he said. Patel also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
© 2024 AFP
