The Questionnaires Were Meant To Intimidate FBI Agents: Instead, They Galvanized Them

As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to vote on the nomination of Kash Patel to head the FBI — a vote Democrats managed to postpone — the bureau continues to parry blow after blow from President Trump’s team of lieutenants. However, rather than cower in fear, many of the bureau’s most devoted officers are doing anything but.On February 2, a 13-question survey was sent to FBI special agents and employees regarding their involvement, however small, in the January 6 investigations. The timing and purpose of the questionnaire were barely concealed: the Trump Administration was targeting agents involved in the investigation and prosecution of protesters – and of Mr. Trump. Indeed, nearly everyone at the FBI, from top brass to rank-and-file agents, is not giving in without a fight. Their pushback ranges from a pair of class action lawsuits filed February 4 — which forced the Department of Justice to a consent order by week’s end — to open resistance from the “warriors” temporarily leading the FBI while Mr. Patel awaits his confirmation votes. “We find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the FBI and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy,” wrote James E. Dennehy, assistant director of the FBI, in a staff memo earlier this month.Brian Driscoll, the acting FBI chief. FBIMr. Dennehy, who hailed acting FBI Chief Brian Driscoll and his deputy as “warriors,” signaled that the Bureau’s current troubles were “time for me to dig in.”Scott Lempert, an attorney with the Center for Employment Justice representing nine unnamed FBI agents in one of two class action lawsuits filed against the Department of Justice, said the Trump Administration’s actions were intended to “intimidate FBI agents and set these folks up for termination for having simply done their jobs.”“There is no legitimate business purpose for aggregating and consolidating lists of individuals who worked on a particular matter,” he said. According to Joaquin “Jack” Garcia, a retired special agent and author of the book “Making Jack Falcone,” published in 2008, “we’re just fact-gatherers. We present our case for prosecution to the Department of Justice. They’re the ones who decide whether this case (will move forward).” In an email sent to FBI agents Wednesday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove explained that the survey, titled “Memo Response: Events that Occurred at or Near the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021,” is part of “a review process” that would be used to “determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”The FBI’s James Dennehy. AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura“The purpose of the requests was to permit the Justice Department to conduct a review of those particular agents’ conduct pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order concerning weaponization in the prior administration,” Mr. Bove, who served on Mr. Trump’s defense team in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, wrote in an email that was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.Mr. Trump, before and after the election, has been nothing but transparent about his displeasure with what he viewed as “lawfare” from President Biden’s Justice Department, and his intention to clean up the bureau. While the president has the authority to replace top political appointees, the question of whether he can—or should—target career FBI agents and prosecutors who participated in the investigations into January 6 or his hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is the subject of spirited debate. On January 31, the same day the DOJ fired several prosecutors involved in the January 6th investigation, Mr. Bove ordered Mr. Driscoll to dismiss eight senior FBI officials. “What (one official) was told was ‘you are being removed because the acting Attorney General has lost confidence that you will faithfully execute the agenda of the Administration,’” said Nancy Savage, Executive Director of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. “That’s chilling.”Mr. Bove maintained that “no FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner” in the January 6th investigation is “at risk of termination or other penalties.”Emil Bove, then a defense attorney for President Trump, attends Manhattan criminal court during Mr. Trump’s sentencing in the hush money case at New York, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via APNot everyone has bought into Mr. Bove’s assurances. “There’s a whole process that has to be done for civil servants to terminate somebody. There’s no due process here,” said Mr. Lambert. Mr. Bove’s recent posturing has come across as hypocritical to some. According to recent reports, when serving in the US Attorney’s office for New York’s southern district, Mr. Bove helped FBI agents locate several suspects from the Capitol riots.“At no point did I ever hear him or anybody else express concern about these investigations and these arrests that we were making,” Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI official, told NPR News on Wednesday.The idea that agents, particularly the rank and file, have free will when it comes to the cases they work on is erroneous, agency veterans say. In general, FBI agents cannot refuse most assignments.“The agents have no choices in the cases assigned,” said one retired agent, who asked not to be named. The nearly 1,600 rioters involved in the events of January 6th arrested “were indicted by a grand jury, approved by judges, pled guilty with counsel, and now we’re going to punish the agents. This is over the top,” the agent added.The Capitol on January 6, 2021. AP/Jose Luis Magana, fileReleasing this list of names in the public forum is a “national security issue” that would also present a huge safety risk for these agents and their families, said Mr. Lambert.In an internal FBI memo obtained earlier this month by NBC News, Mr. Driscoll told staff that he had sent the names of those agents involved in the January 6th to the Department of Justice on “the classified enclave with caveats that appropriately identify the information as law enforcement sensitive.”According to one former agent, this “classified enclave” is a standard communication system that is classified up to “Secret.” Doing so allowed Mr. Driscoll to follow DOJ protocols while also “minimally protecting” those names from public disclosure.Last week, a federal judge ordered the DOJ to keep confidential the names of FBI agents and employees. Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI. AP/J. Scott Applewhite“Under this order, if the Government intends to release the names of any FBI personnel, it must notify us in advance so that we can again challenge and prevent any planned disclosure,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney with Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, who is representing the FBI Agents Association in its lawsuit against the DOJ, in a statement released last Friday. Despite this order, President Trump said he would still fire “some” of the agents “because some of them were corrupt,” adding he would do so “quickly, and very surgically.”If Trump makes good on his threats, Andrew Mills, Chief of Police of Palm Springs Police Department, who regularly partners with the FBI on joint task forces, offered to hire affected agents “in a heartbeat.”“I’d be more than happy to take as many as I can get,” said Mills. “They still have policing in their blood.”The Bureau’s fight, it seems, is far from over, much to the dismay of former agents, even those who initially welcomed President Trump’s plans to reform the Bureau. “It’s one thing to go after the Peter Strzoks and Lisa Pages, that’s one part of the FBI,” said one retired agent who asked to remain nameless, referring to the senior-level FBI staffers who were caught sending each other unflattering text messages about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign. “But the people who knocked on somebody’s door, that’s a whole other story,” said the agent. “If someone had said, ‘We want to review every January 6th case file for signs of malfeasance,’ it wouldn’t create the same kind of anxiety or concern,” said Mrs. Savage. “Names are not going to tell you anything.”

The Questionnaires Were Meant To Intimidate FBI Agents: Instead, They Galvanized Them

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