At least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday, according to sources briefed on the matter, extending a purge that began last week at the Justice Department across the street from the FBI headquarters.
The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the sources told CNN. Some were notified while Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, sat answering questions from senators for his confirmation hearing Thursday.
Trump transition officials in recent months have signaled plans to push aside leaders promoted by former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The leadership changes have drawn internal consternation, in part because these officials didn’t have anything to do with prosecutions of Donald Trump, which have been the focus of the president’s ire.
The personnel moves come as hundreds of FBI agents who were assigned to investigate the January 6 US Capitol attack and Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents are bracing for the possibility that they could be forced out or punished, similar to what has happened to dozens of career Justice Department lawyers.
The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on Trump’s vow to strike back at so-called weaponization at the FBI. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters.
Some agents say the criticism belies the fact that FBI agents and supervisors can’t choose which assignments they are given as part of their job. The FBI workforce is broadly conservative, and many agents initially had qualms about being assigned to the Capitol attack and Trump cases, viewing the prosecutions as heavy-handed, people familiar with the matter say. Some Justice Department lawyers leading January 6 cases complained that they believed agents sometimes slow-walked some of their work.
The FBI declined to comment.
The FBI Agents Association officials met with FBI director nominee Kash Patel in recent weeks to raise those concerns, urging him to protect agents who did their work investigating violent crimes with oversight from judges, FBI supervisors and Justice Department lawyers, according to people briefed on the meeting. Patel listened but offered no reassurances, the people briefed on the meeting said.
During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on his nomination, Patel said he doesn’t know of any upcoming personnel plans.
“Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations?” asked Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.
“I am not aware of that, senator,” Patel replied.
Patel, at his hearing, has rejected accusations from Democrats that he would exact retribution against political enemies as he has suggested in media appearances in recent years. He said he would make sure the FBI is “de-weaponized.”
“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for case assignments,” he said in response to a question by Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Agents who carried out the Mar-a-Lago search in the Trump classified documents case have already faced threats after their names were made public by Trump supporters on social media, the Justice Department has said.
The anxiety inside the FBI is fueled by some of the early moves inside the bureau that began even before Trump’s inauguration.
Paul Abbate, the deputy FBI director then serving as acting director, retired on Inauguration Day, a day of high national security vulnerabilities, after the Trump transition appointed two senior agents from Newark and New York city to take over as acting director and deputy director. Wray, appointed by Trump, resigned nearly three years ahead of the end of his term, after Trump vowed to fire him.
Shortly after Trump took office, Tom Ferguson, a former agent and aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, arrived at the FBI headquarters as a policy adviser. Jordan has been a staunch FBI critic and led a subcommittee on purported weaponization of government agencies, including the FBI.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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