The Trump administration already freed everyone jailed over the January 6 MAGA-rally-turned-Mike-Pence-assassination-effort and has turned its attention to purging the government of anyone involved in prosecuting the “very fine people” who beat Capitol police officers with blunt instruments. His loyalists began by firing career prosecutors who ran those cases and then asked the FBI to turn over details on all FBI employees who worked on any of the January 6 investigations.
That turned out to be over 5000 employees. For reference, the FBI boasts around 38,000 employees, so Trump is apparently looking to fire 13 percent of the FBI. Hopefully this trims at least one of the increasingly redundant CBS FBI-colon shows (it won’t).
Naturally, some of these FBI employees would rather not be put on a government enemies list, and they’re suing the Justice Department over it. The two lawsuits (so far anyway) argue that handing over their names is a naked prelude to a rash of entirely preordained retaliatory firings. Helpfully, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent the email seeking these names under the subject line “Terminations,” in case you expected this administration to avoid a boneheaded paper trail.
At the same time, the FBI Agents Association, which represents over 14,000 current and former agents, has also gone to Congress asking for help, which is like depending on Wile E. Coyote to catch tonight’s dinner.
A standard that federal employees are better off refusing orders they disagree with would backfire on Trump pretty quickly. Thankfully, consistency isn’t the goal here. Trump’s real goal isn’t just to fire these specific employees — it’s to instill fear across the Bureau. He’s not opposed to politically motivated investigations — obviously, as his dingbat U.S. Attorney is trying to spin Chuck Schumer as issuing death threats — he just wants a police force that understands that it should look the other way whenever his people commit crimes.
On that note, anyone who worked on the Epstein files might want to dust off their resume just in case.
The lawsuits are just getting started, and Congress will have to decide if it’s willing to let the executive branch treat the FBI like its personal security force. Either way, we’re about to see whether career law enforcement officers get thrown under the bus just for following the evidence. As Fox Mulder would say, “The Truth is Out There” but in the modern FBI it’s a better career move not to bother looking.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
