WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Washington Post) — Top Senate Democrats on Monday tried to challenge major changes at the Justice Department and FBI, demanding to know whether President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the agencies played a role in the recent removal or reassignment of law enforcement officials and suggesting that a purge of senior leaders might continue.
In a letter to the acting attorney general and acting FBI director, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said the apparent demotions of some officials and the ouster of others presented an “alarming threat to national security.”
“As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these shocking removals and reassignments deprive DOJ and the FBI of experienced, senior leadership and decades of experience fighting violent crime, espionage, and terrorism,” read the letter signed by the panel’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois), and the committee’s nine other Democrats.
Durbin wrote that he had received “credible information” indicating that at least 25 FBI special agents in charge might be removed this week, in addition to at least four who were removed in recent days, and that a loyalty test was being implemented in the leadership hiring process that involved questions about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Democrats asked acting attorney general James McHenry and acting FBI director Brian Driscoll for a list of all employees who have been reassigned or removed, as well as records involving their communications with attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and FBI director nominee Kash Patel – both of whom are awaiting Senate confirmation – and other top Justice Department leaders.
Durbin’s office didn’t respond to requests for more details about the information he said he had received about changes at the agencies. The FBI declined to comment, and the Justice Department didn’t respond to requests.
Both agencies have been roiled with anxiety over the past two weeks, as many prosecutors, supervisors and senior officials have been ousted or transferred to new positions and as the FBI has begun a broad examination of every agent and employee involved in the massive investigation of the Capitol riot.
At Justice, those transferred to less-desirable roles include top officials in the national security, civil rights, antitrust and criminal divisions. Although many have no background in immigration law, they were given the option of going to a newly created division focused on sanctuary cities and immigration enforcement – or quitting.
Some targeted for transfer, such as the senior official overseeing public corruption and politically sensitive investigations, opted to resign.
Those fired outright include leaders at the Justice Department’s immigration courts, as well as dozens of prosecutors who investigated Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
At the FBI, at least eight senior officials are being forced out on orders from the Justice Department, according to a memo sent by acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove late last week. They include leaders who oversaw intelligence, national security, cyber-investigations, and the bureau’s science and technology branch.
Some had run FBI field offices in major cities such as Miami and Washington. All had been promoted under then-FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, who resigned in the final days of the Biden administration after Trump said he would cut short Wray’s 10-year term and fire him.
