At least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to retire, resign, or be fired by Monday, according to sources briefed on the matter, extending a purge that began last week at the Justice Department across the street from the FBI headquarters.
The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level and include those who oversee cyber, national security, and criminal investigations, the sources told CNN. Some were notified while Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, sat answering questions from senators for his confirmation hearing Thursday.
Trump transition officials in recent months have signaled plans to push aside leaders promoted by former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The leadership changes have drawn internal consternation, in part because these officials didn’t have anything to do with the prosecutions of Donald Trump, which have been the focus of the president’s ire.
The personnel moves come as hundreds of FBI agents who were assigned to investigate the January 6 US Capitol attack and Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents are bracing for the possibility that they could be forced out or punished, similar to what has happened to dozens of career Justice Department lawyers.
The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on Trump’s vow to strike back at so-called weaponization at the FBI. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters.
Some agents say the criticism belies the fact that FBI agents and supervisors can’t choose which assignments they are given as part of their job. The FBI workforce is broadly conservative, and many agents initially had qualms about being assigned to the Capitol attack and Trump cases, viewing the prosecutions as heavy-handed, people familiar with the matter say. Some Justice Department lawyers leading January 6 cases complained that they believed agents sometimes slow-walked some of their work.
The FBI declined to comment.
…….Patel, at his hearing, has rejected accusations from Democrats that he would exact retribution against political enemies as he has suggested in media appearances in recent years. He said he would make sure the FBI is “de-weaponized.”
“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for case assignments,” he said in response to a question by Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Agents who carried out the Mar-a-Lago search in the Trump classified documents case have already faced threats after their names were made public by Trump supporters on social media, the Justice Department has said.
The anxiety inside the FBI is fueled by some of the early moves inside the bureau that began even before Trump’s inauguration.
Paul Abbate, the deputy FBI director then serving as acting director, retired on Inauguration Day, a day of high national security vulnerabilities, after the Trump transition appointed two senior agents from Newark and New York City to take over as acting director and deputy director. Wray, appointed by Trump, resigned nearly three years ahead of the end of his term after Trump vowed to fire him.
Shortly after Trump took office, Tom Ferguson, a former agent and aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, arrived at the FBI headquarters as a policy adviser. Jordan has been a staunch FBI critic and led a subcommittee on the purported weaponization of government agencies, including the FBI.
I hope Patel goes after every fucking one of the weaponized jackboots who targeted President Trump and his supporters.
Every agency head that fled or resigned to elude justice, should be dragged back to DC to face charges. That includes Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, Matthew Graves, and Jack Smith.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.com/president-trump-fires-a-dozen-corrupt-doj-officials-who-persecuted-him/