CNN
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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.
The letter warns that should names of the agents become public, they would be subject to “immediate risk of doxing, swatting, harassment, or possibly worse.”
Attorney Mark Zaid; Norm Eisen, executive chairman of the State Democracy Defenders Fund; and retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner signed the letter to Bove.
The letter comes a week after the Justice Department fired more than a dozen officials who worked on the federal criminal investigations into Trump. A letter from acting Attorney General James McHenry to the officials said they cannot be “trusted” to “faithfully” implement Trump’s agenda.
In addition to the questionnaire sent out from the DOJ, FBI leaders have been instructed to provide by Tuesday information about all current and former bureau employees who “at any time” worked on January 6 investigations.
On his first day in office, Trump issued a blanket pardon to those arrested and convicted for their roles in the violent US Capitol riot.
Perhaps the most passionate response has been from James Dennehy, the top leader of the FBI’s New York field office, who told his staff he’s preparing to “dig in” to defend them.
CNN obtained a copy of Dennehy’s email, which reads in part:
