At least six senior FBI leaders have been told to leave the bureau or be fired by Monday, according to multiple reports.
The move comes as FBI Director nominee Kash Patel faced senators at a confirmation hearing on Thursday and following former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s resignation. Wray promoted many of the officials.
The officials set to leave are reportedly at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level. It’s unclear how the officials could be fired because they are civil servants and may not be fired without cause.
An FBI official told NBC News that the move would be “hugely disruptive.” A former official also told the outlet that some at the bureau are angry because the officials are in non-political positions.
The next round of FBI officials leaving further illustrates sweeping change across the federal government in which Biden administration officials are being pushed out. It also could serve as further retaliation against Wray, who ordered an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in 2022 in Trump’s classified documents case.
He defended the search earlier this month.
“Part of the FBI’s job is to safeguard classified information, and when we learn that information, classified material, is not being properly stored, we have a duty to act. And I can tell you that in investigations like this one, a search warrant is not — and here was not — anybody’s first choice,” Wray said.
“We always try to pursue, invariably, try to pursue the least intrusive means, first trying to get the information back voluntarily, then with a subpoena, and only if, after all that, we learn that the agents haven’t been given all of the classified material, and in fact, those efforts have been frustrated, even obstructed, then our agents are left with no choice but to go to a federal judge, make a probable cause showing and get a search warrant. And that’s what happened here.”
Trump fired 18 inspectors general last week in a move considered legally questionable because there must be a given reason for their firings, and a 30-day notice must be given to Congress. Senior Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to Trump asking for an explanation for the firings.
The Trump administration said last week that the officials were fired as part of an effort to remove parts of the past Biden administration that don’t “align” with the new administration. “We’re cleaning house of what doesn’t work for us and going forward,” an official told NBC News.
Like the FBI positions, inspectors general aren’t considered political positions and serve as government watchdogs. Trump said he fired the officials because it was a “very common thing to do.”
“Some people thought that some were unfair or were not doing the job. It’s a very standard thing to do, very much like the U.S. attorneys,” he said.
Patel denied during his confirmation hearing that FBI personnel involved in the Trump investigation would be removed. “Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations?” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) asked him.
“I am not aware of that, senator,” Patel said.
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Patel said in the past that he would close the FBI headquarters and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state,'” as well as reassign its 7,000 employees that “work in that building and send them across America to go chase down criminals. Go be cops.” He denied that he would seek retribution against his political enemies during his confirmation hearing.
“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for case assignments,” he said.