FBI agents involved in Trump probe face fire
Trump
US President Donald Trump
FBI agents who participated in the investigations that led to the dropped criminal charges against President Donald Trump will be fired in a sweeping purge of the nation's law enforcement agency, they announced Friday.
Dozens of FBI agents involved in the investigation of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and several supervisors are also being "evaluated for possible departure," CNN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the plan, said that "officials are working to identify hundreds of (FBI agents) potentially for possible firing."
The newspaper reported that in addition to the FBI purge, about 30 federal prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases and were on probation were fired.
The Justice Department on Monday fired a number of officials involved in the Trump prosecution.
A Justice Department official said the positions were eliminated because the acting attorney general did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the president's agenda."
According to NBC News, those fired by the FBI include the heads of more than 20 FBI offices, including those in Miami and Washington. According to CNN, at least six senior FBI officials were ordered to "retire, resign or be fired on Monday."
The Post reported that FBI Director Brian Driscoll, a veteran agent who was nominated by Trump to lead the agency until his nomination as director was confirmed by the Senate, had refused to approve the mass layoffs.
- "A shameless attack on the rule of law" -
Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, strongly condemned the layoffs at the FBI and the Justice Department.
"The Trump administration's purge of dozens of Justice Department and FBI officials involved in the investigation of Donald Trump and the January 6 protesters is a serious blow to the integrity and effectiveness of the FBI and the Justice Department," Durbin said.
"This is a blatant attack on the rule of law that also seriously undermines our national security and public safety," he said. "Trump's unelected lackeys are waging widespread political vendettas against our nation's career law enforcement officers."
The FBI Agents Association, a nonprofit group that supports FBI employees, said that if reports of widespread firings are true, the actions are "fundamentally inconsistent with President Trump's stated law enforcement goals and his support for FBI agents." "Firing hundreds of agents would seriously undermine the Bureau's ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats, and ultimately set the Bureau and its new leadership up for failure," the FBIAA said in a press release. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal cases against Trump, resigned earlier this month. Smith accused Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and of misusing classified documents after he left the White House. Neither case went to trial, and Smith — in keeping with the Justice Department's policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — had both cases dismissed after the Republican won the November presidential election. Trump, on his first day in the White House last week, pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block Congress's certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned after Trump's reelection, and the president appointed Kash Patel, his former adviser and loyal confidant, to lead the bureau.
During his confirmation hearing before a Senate committee on Thursday, Patel was asked if he was aware of plans to punish FBI agents involved in Trump's investigations.
"I'm not aware of that." Patel also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that "all FBI employees will be protected from political retaliation."
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