The Trump administration fired a group of prosecutors involved in the January 6 criminal cases on Friday and demanded the names of FBI agents who worked on those investigations, potentially paving the way for their likely removal, reports said on Saturday.
The actions reflect the White House’s efforts to assert control over federal law enforcement and purge agencies of career employees who have been identified as unable to execute their duties and President Donald Trump’s agenda unbiasedly, the Associated Press reported.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the dismissals of the January 6 prosecutors just days after President Donald Trump granted sweeping clemency to more than 1,500 individuals charged in the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a memo obtained by The AP.
Around two dozen employees at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were terminated, according to a source familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In a separate memo, Bove identified more than a half-dozen senior FBI executives who were ordered to either retire or be fired by Monday. He also requested the names, titles, and offices of all FBI employees who worked on investigations into the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
The bureau’s acting director indicated that the list could include thousands of employees.
Bove, who defended Trump in his criminal cases before he agreed to join the administration, said Justice Department officials would then carry out a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
“As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always,” acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll wrote in a letter to the bureau’s staff.
The prosecutors dismissed from the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office were initially hired for temporary assignments to support the January 6 cases but were moved into permanent positions by the Biden-Harris administration following Trump’s victory in November, according to the memo obtained by the AP.
Bove, in his memo, said he would not “tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.”
When questioned during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, stated that he was unaware of any plans to terminate or punish FBI employees involved in the Trump investigations. Patel emphasized that, if confirmed, he would adhere to the FBI’s internal review processes for taking action against employees, the AP reported.
Queried by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) over whether he would reverse any decisions made before his Senate confirmation that did not follow that standard process, Patel said, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, senator, and your colleagues, that I will honor the due process of the FBI.”
Democrats and other detractors in the media have complained that Trump is attempting to ‘bend’ federal law enforcement to his will. However, it should be noted that the Biden-Harris administration took the unprecedented step of using the FBI and the Justice Department to prosecute Trump, then a former president, after he left the White House — in one case for something the then-president, Joe Biden, himself was allegedly guilty of — improperly retaining classified documents.
Those cases have since been dismissed, but supporters of the current commander-in-chief further note that it would be virtually impossible for many of those agents and federal prosecutors, many of whom voluntarily signed on to the cases, to now set aside their biases and serve the man they once tried to imprison dispassionately.
Asked if he had anything to do with the DOJ and FBI purges, Trump said on Friday, “No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s never seen before. They came after a lot of people — like me — but they came after a lot of people.”
He added: “If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing because they were very bad.”