A sweeping shake-up is underway at the FBI, with agents involved in investigations that led to now-abandoned criminal charges against President Donald Trump facing termination, U.S. media reported Friday.
According to CNN, dozens of FBI agents, including those who investigated Trump supporters involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, are being reviewed for possible dismissal.
Some supervisors are also under scrutiny, raising concerns about a broad political purge within the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the plan, reported that officials are working to identify potentially hundreds of agents for termination.
Beyond the FBI, the Justice Department has also dismissed about 30 federal prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases and were still on probationary status.
On Monday, the department fired several officials who had been involved in prosecuting Trump, with an unnamed official stating that the acting attorney general no longer trusted them to “faithfully implement the president’s agenda.”
Meanwhile, NBC News reported that more than 20 FBI field office heads, including those in Miami and Washington, are among those facing dismissal.
At least six senior FBI leaders have been given an ultimatum to retire, resign, or be fired by Monday, CNN added.
However, acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, a veteran agent appointed by Trump to oversee the bureau until a new director is confirmed, has refused to approve the widespread firings.
Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, condemned the dismissals as a “brazen assault on the rule of law.”
“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 integrity and effectiveness of these institutions,” Durbin said.
The FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), which advocates for bureau employees, issued a statement warning that mass dismissals could significantly weaken national security.
“If reports of these terminations are true, they run fundamentally counter to the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump,” the group said.
“Firing potentially hundreds of agents would severely hamper the Bureau’s ability to counter national security and criminal threats.”
The restructuring at the FBI and DOJ follows the resignation of Special Counsel Jack Smith earlier this month.
Smith had led two federal cases against Trump, one involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another concerning classified documents but both were dropped after Trump won the November election.
In keeping with Justice Department policy, which bars prosecuting a sitting president, Smith formally dismissed all charges.
On his first day back in the White House last week, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 supporters convicted for storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Following Trump’s reelection, FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned, and Trump has since nominated Kash Patel, a former advisor and staunch loyalist, to lead the bureau.
During his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, Patel was asked whether he was aware of plans to punish FBI agents who investigated Trump.
“I am not aware of that,” he responded, adding that “all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
Despite these assurances, concerns persist over whether the mass dismissals mark a shift toward politicization of federal law enforcement.
