Patrick G. Eddington
Over the weekend, the Trump administration intensified its efforts to identify and target for retaliation FBI personnel connected to the now-closed investigations into Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and his absconding with dozens of classified documents he was not entitled to retain per the Presidential Records Act.
In the wake of the administration’s Friday mass purge of senior FBI leaders in Washington and elsewhere across the country, ABC News reported on February 2 that a 12-question survey was sent to FBI personnel “asking about their work related to investigating the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) apparently provided the tip to ABC and told the network that,
Employees carrying out their duties to investigate allegations of criminal activity with integrity and within the rule of law should never be treated as those who have engaged in actual misconduct.
This morning, the Washington Times reported that Acting FBI Director and former FBI Newark Field Office head Brian Driscoll had apparently refused an order by Acting Attorney General Emile Bove “to compile a list of all current and former FBI employees assigned ‘at any time’ to the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol for review ‘to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.’
The Times also reported that,
The FBI told The Washington Times that Mr. Driscoll is still the acting director, but there is speculation among current and former FBI agents over whether he will remain in that position after refusing Mr. Bove’s order.
Sources said that Mr. Driscoll’s team drove him to Newark, New Jersey, where he previously headed the field office.
It’s that last sentence that really caught my attention.
Maybe Driscoll needed to visit the Newark office in connection with one or more ongoing investigations. But the fact that the Times’ sources made a point of noting that Driscoll’s “team” drove him to Newark means that he’s got subordinates with guns at his side for a very different reason.
The Times also reported that “a protest by employees and former employees Monday at the Washington Field Office and headquarters is in the planning stages.”
I cannot recall a time in FBI history when current or former employees have planned to gather in numbers to protest on federal property a sitting chief executive’s personnel actions. At the same time, no prior president has attempted a Stalinist-like purge of career federal law enforcement officers at any point in US history.
It’s also worth noting that the abrupt removal of hundreds or even thousands of FBI personnel will inevitably jeopardize ongoing counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyber, and child sexual trafficking investigations, among many others, something former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R‑NJ) also noted over the weekend.
On January 23, 2025, the FBIAA issued a statement condemning Trump’s mass pardons and sentence commutations of those convicted or pled out for their role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A request to FBIAA for comment on these latest administration personnel actions targeting FBI employees was not answered prior to the publication of this piece.