Trump DOJ fires Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutors, FBI executives ousted

Justice Department leadership has directed Washington, D.C.’s top prosecutor, Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin, to fire prosecutors who were assigned to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to a memo dated Jan. 31, reviewed by CBS News and also confirmed by sources familiar with the matter. And in a separate memo, the deputy attorney general on Friday also ordered that all FBI agents who were assigned to the Jan. 6 insurrection undergo review. 

Martin’s directive, written by Acting Attorney General James McHenry, said the firings would be effective immediately. The memo included an appendix with names of the employees who would be fired.

Some operating under the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., had been hired as term employees to carry out the sprawling Jan. 6 probe. Before the presidential transition, the Biden Justice Department made them permanent employees.

According to the memo, their employment has “hindered the ability” of the D.C. U.S. attorney to “faithfully implement the agenda that the American people elected President Trump to execute.”

“The appropriate step is to terminate these employees, and to take all appropriate steps to ensure that resources allocated to their hiring and employment” are available to current Justice Department leadership, the memo said.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Furthermore, the acting deputy attorney general, Mr. Trump’s former defense attorney Emil Bove, has ordered the acting director of the FBI to compile a list of all current and former FBI employees who were assigned “at any time” to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack investigation for review “to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary,” according to a memo reviewed by CBS News.

The FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, sent a letter to all FBI employees in which he detailed the directive, which also included an order to fire eight current FBI executives. As CBS News previously reported, many Executive Assistant Directors, including those who headed up the critical national security, cyber and criminal divisions, are being forced to resign, retire or face termination.

According to a copy of Driscoll’s letter also reviewed by CBS News, the Acting Director said of the Jan. 6-related agent lists, “We understand this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigations. I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane.”

Bove’s memo ordered the eight executives to be terminated by Feb. 3 and the list of employees who work on the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 be compiled by Feb. 4. The head of the Washington, D.C. Field Office is also expected to be removed from his post by Feb. 10, according to the sources.

Driscoll — who assumed the top job after former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned — told the bureau’s employees, “We are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people.”

Bove’s memo said he was directing the firings and other personnel review to take on allegations of weaponization within the Justice Department.

“I do not believe that the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” Bove wrote of the FBI executives.

Bove’s memo also said agents who worked on a case in which the Justice Department charged senior leaders of Hamas with terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions-evasion should also be reviewed.

The moves would expand an ongoing purge of employees within the Justice Department and the FBI, where top officials have been told to retire, resign or be fired by Monday. Government officials are reviewing lists of FBI agents who worked on the probes to determine who should be fired and the numbers of agents affected could grow, two of the sources said.

The senior FBI officials receiving notice to resign or be fired include those at the executive assistant director level at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and numerous heads of FBI field offices across the country. The special agents in charge of Miami and Las Vegas offices, as well as the assistant director in charge of the Washington field offices have also received notice, three people familiar with the moves told CBS News. These agents are expected to accept retirement.

The top officials at the executive assistant director level being instructed to retire manage the FBI’s criminal, national security and cyber investigations. There may be more changes throughout the FBI, too, sources said.

Some were notified while Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, faced questions by senators at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. The panel has not yet voted on his confirmation.

While the number of agents affected by the latest changes remains unclear, the decision to include those who worked on the complex probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could reverberate across the country, since agents from a number of FBI field offices participated in what became the largest investigation in Justice Department history. More than 1,500 defendants were charged in nearly every state, and FBI personnel played critical roles in each case. On his first day in office, Mr. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all Jan. 6 defendants.

The investigation into the Capitol breach has been closed, but multiple people familiar with the matter previously told CBS News that Acting U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Edward Martin, initiated a review previous charging decisions behind hundreds of cases. That review is ongoing.

FBI agents also worked with federal prosecutors as they investigated and later charged Mr. Trump in two cases brought by former special counsel Jack Smith, one tied to the president’s handling of classified records and the other related to his conduct after the 2020 presidential election. Those agents are expected to be removed from their positions. The charges against Mr. Trump were dropped before his inauguration and the special counsel resigned.

The FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment when contacted by CBS News. However, Patel was asked during his confirmation hearing specifically about the firing of FBI agents who worked on the Trump cases. 

“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard and no one will be terminated for case assignments,” Patel said. He later added that “all FBI employees will be protected from political retribution.”

In a statement, the FBI Agents Association, which represents active and former FBI personnel, said, “If true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents. Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure.

“These actions also contradict the commitments that Attorney General-nominee Pam Bondi and Director-nominee Kash Patel made during their nomination hearings before the United States Senate,” the association continued. “They also run counter to the commitment that Director-nominee Patel made to the FBI Agents Association, where during our meeting he said that Agents would be afforded appropriate process and review and not face retribution based solely on the cases to which they were assigned.”

Last week, CBS News reported that more than a dozen federal prosecutors who worked on Smith’s team to charge Mr. Trump were fired by the Justice Department.

The federal prosecutors were informed of the decision to terminate their positions by a letter sent over email after Justice Department leadership determined they were unable to carry out Mr. Trump’s agenda, according to two sources.

“Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president,” a Justice Department official told CBS News at the time.

In all, the moves make good on a Trump campaign promise to clean house at the Justice Department. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order to take on the “weaponization of the federal government,” a characterization he has applied to the special counsel’s prosecutions.