Wednesday, 05 February, 2025
An anonymous group of FBI agents and employees took the rare step of suing the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday, seeking to prevent President Donald Trump and his allies from publicly releasing the names of all FBI personnel involved in the Jan 6 criminal investigations.
The lawsuit was filed just hours before a 3 p.m. deadline set by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who had ordered FBI leadership to submit a list of every agent involved in investigating the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The lawsuit claims that the list’s purpose is to target agents for termination or other adverse employment actions.
"Plaintiffs reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons."
On Friday, Bove fired eight top FBI officials in Washington, DC, and Miami and about 17 federal prosecutors on probationary status who worked on criminal cases related to the Jan 6 attack.
In announcing the firings, he also demanded a list of every employee at the FBI who worked on Jan 6 cases - a list that Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll later told staff would encompass thousands of employees, including himself.
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An anonymous group of FBI agents and employees took the rare step of suing the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday, seeking to prevent President Donald Trump and his allies from publicly releasing the names of all FBI personnel involved in the Jan 6 criminal investigations.
The lawsuit was filed just hours before a 3 p.m. deadline set by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who had ordered FBI leadership to submit a list of every agent involved in investigating the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The lawsuit claims that the list’s purpose is to target agents for termination or other adverse employment actions.
"Plaintiffs reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons."
On Friday, Bove fired eight top FBI officials in Washington, DC, and Miami and about 17 federal prosecutors on probationary status who worked on criminal cases related to the Jan 6 attack.
In announcing the firings, he also demanded a list of every employee at the FBI who worked on Jan 6 cases - a list that Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll later told staff would encompass thousands of employees, including himself.
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