‘Time for me to dig in’: Justice Department puts pressure on FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases
CNN
The fate of thousands of FBI officials remains in the balance as the Justice Department is demanding they fill out a questionnaire about any involvement in investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, a move employees believe is meant to be a precursor to mass firings.
The fate of thousands of FBI officials remains in the balance as the Justice Department is demanding they fill out a questionnaire about any involvement in investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, a move employees believe is meant to be a precursor to mass firings. The unusual demand for FBI employees to explain their role in an investigation comes as CNN has reported that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is considering expanding its purge of bureau personnel. It’s being met with considerable pushback, however, including potential lawsuits and legal advice to agents urging them not to resign. The top agent in the FBI’s New York field office, meanwhile, told his colleagues he’s digging a foxhole to protect them. “Do NOT resign or offer to resign,” the FBI Agents Association told members in an email obtained by CNN. “While we would never advocate for physical non-compliance, you need to be clear your removal is not voluntary.” Separately, lawyers for prosecutors and FBI agents called the possible dismissal of employees who worked on Trump-related investigations a “violation of the due process rights” and threatened legal action in a letter to senior DOJ officials Sunday night. “If you proceed with terminations and/or public exposure of terminated employees’ identities, we stand ready to vindicate their rights through all available legal means,” the lawyers wrote to Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general.
Over and over at a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democratic senators confronted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about controversial comments they said he had made in the past. And over and over, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services either denied having said those things or said he wasn’t sure he had said them.
Investigators are intensifying their search into what caused the collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, with recovery crews still working to pull wreckage from the Potomac River and initial concerns already raised about the path of at least one of the aircraft.