Lawsuit Accuses Trump of Aiming To ‘Purge’ More Than 6,000 Agents Who Worked on January 6 and Mar-a-Lago Prosecutions

A class action filed by nine federal agents against the FBI and the Department of Justice could frustrate President Trump’s effort to obliterate the legacy of the more than 1,500 January 6 prosecutions undertaken by the Biden administration.The plaintiffs alleged that “upon returning to the Presidency, Mr. Trump has ordered the DOJ to conduct a review and purge of FBI personnel involved” in the January 6 prosecutions and the one that related to Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents. The plaintiffs worked on those cases and allege that Mr. Trump’s effort to cull them “is unlawful and retaliatory.”Mr. Trump pardoned nearly all of the defendants charged with crimes for the events of January 6, 2021, even those convicted of violent offenses. Mr. Trump was charged with four crimes by Special Counsel Jack Smith, but those were dismissed following his victory over Vice President Harris in November’s election. Now, the acting attorney general, James McHenry, has ordered the FBI to turn over to the DOJ the responses to a three-page form relating to those prosecutions that seeks to identify who was staffed on that subset of cases. The plaintiffs, though, write that they “legitimately fear that the information being compiled will be accessed by persons who are not authorized to have access to it” — a possible reference to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who has been tasked with remaking swaths of the federal bureaucracy.The plaintiffs argue that “even if they are not targeted for termination, they may face other retaliatory acts such as demotion, denial of job opportunities or denial of promotions in the future.” The suit hit the docket in federal court at Washington at around noon, just as a deadline passed that the DOJ set for the FBI to turn over the names of agents who worked on January 6 cases. That law enforcement effort was one of the largest in American history.The agents write that they “were instructed to fill out a survey that would identify their specific role in the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases,” and that the “aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management” in order to “identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action.” They worry: “Should this information fall into the wrong hands, Plaintiffs would be placed at immediate risk of serious personal harm and harm to their loved ones.” The plaintiffs argue that they are but a tiny subset of “at least 6,000 current and former FBI agents and employees who participated in some manner in the investigation and prosecution of crimes and abuses of power by Donald Trump, or by those acting at his behest.” The complaint asserts that “Mr. Trump was an active participant in the planning of the attack on the Capitol,” and that “for hours he did nothing to intercede or persuade the Jan. 6 Rioters to cease their activity.” The suit, brought by the Center for Employment Justice, requests that the district court “enjoin the aggregation, storage, reporting, publication or dissemination of any list or compilation of information that would identify FBI agents and other personnel, and tie them directly to Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago case activities.” The complaint contends that should details of the prosecutions “fall into the wrong hands, the national security of the Unite States would be severely compromised.” Mr. Trump, though, will likely argue that the information requested is well within the purview of what his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, calls “the executive of the executive.” The complaint expresses the conviction — never proven in criminal court — that Mr. Trump is responsible for the events of January 6. The prayer for relief is based on the First and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. The lawsuit insists: “Government employees are protected by the First Amendment from discrimination or retaliation based on their political beliefs or affiliation,” and maintains that the search for who staffed the prosecutions at issue amounts to this manner of discrimination. The agents also maintain that their right to due process, vouchsafed in the Fifth Amendment, has been violated. The Supreme Court has determined that the amendment’s promise that no one shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” applies to federal employees, whose jobs are considered “property” — meaning notice procedure must be given prior to termination.

Lawsuit Accuses Trump of Aiming To ‘Purge’ More Than 6,000 Agents Who Worked on January 6 and Mar-a-Lago Prosecutions

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