Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has taken steps not only to re-write the history of January 6, 2021, but to lay the foundations for a presidential dictatorship by installing loyalists throughout the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In the last two weeks, Trump loyalists at the DoJ and FBI have either terminated or forced into retirement senior officials in their agencies who participated in investigations or prosecutions targeting Trump and his fascist foot-soldiers.
On January 27, acting Attorney General James McHenry fired over a dozen officials who had worked on criminal investigations into Trump. In the termination letters obtained by CNN, McHenry co-signed Trump’s rhetoric that any investigation into Trump was an example of the “weaponization” of federal law enforcement.
McHenry’s letter states:
You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper function of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates. Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.
Several outlets reported that prosecutors impacted include those who worked under Special Counsel Jack Smith in Trump’s coup case as well as one who investigated Trump over his improper storing of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
On the same day the DoJ prosecutors were purged, the interim US attorney in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, announced a “special project” targeting prosecutors who brought obstruction charges [US Code 1512(c)] against Trump’s fascist foot-soldiers.
CNN reported that Martin issued a memo on January 27 to two long-term prosecutors that requested “all information you have related to the use of 1512 charges, including all files, documents, notes, emails and other information.” This was to include information that might be in the possession of former employees of the department.
Martin is the former chair of the Missouri Republican Party and a long-time opponent of abortion. A former radio host, Martin repeatedly raised the prospect of prosecuting women who obtained abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. In a May 2022 radio show, Martin said:
If you ban abortion in Louisiana, is a doctor who has an abortion breaking the law? Yes. Should he be punished? Yes – I think that seems obvious. What is the punishment? Not sure yet. Could be criminal, could be a jail sentence, I suppose.
On January 31, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memorandum ordering eight senior FBI officials to resign or be fired for participating in January 6 cases. The memo, headlined “Terminations,” also demanded that top federal prosecutors in each state compile a list of all the FBI agents and prosecutors who worked on investigations into the attack on the US Capitol.
The New York Times reported on January 31 that senior FBI officials in the Las Vegas and New Orleans field offices were among those terminated. Spencer Evans, former head of the Las Vegas field office, wrote in an email viewed by the Times, “I was given no rationale for this decision, which, as you might imagine, has come as a shock.”
The Times, citing the FBI, reported that the number of bureau officials, analysts and field agents who played some role in the January 6 investigations could be as high as 6,000, nearly one-sixth of the bureau’s 38,000 employees.
As part of Trump’s molding of the FBI into his own praetorian guard, certain FBI employees have been ordered to fill out a survey titled “A/DAG Memo Response: Events that Occurred at or Near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The survey memo includes questions about current and former job titles as well as, “What was your role in the investigation(s) or prosecution(s) relating to events that occurred at or near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021?”
In response to the firings and the threat of further mass firings, which are illegal, on Tuesday the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA), which counts as members approximately 12,000 of the FBI’s 13,800 special agents, filed a lawsuit against the DoJ and the US government alleging “unlawful retaliation” against its members.
Lawyers for the FBIAA wrote that their clients fear not only that the surveys will be used to retaliate against them, but also that their personal information will be publicized “for opprobrium and potential vigilante action by those who they were investigating.”
In their brief, the lawyers noted that one of Trump’s first executive actions upon returning to the White House was pardoning and commuting the sentences of nearly 1,600 people charged in relation to the failed coup. They wrote that since receiving their pardons or commutations, “the leaders of the January 6 riot and others have tagged FBI agents who worked on the investigation and prosecutions of those rioters.”
On February 1, “prolific” FBI informant and Proud Boy leader Henry (Enrique) Tarrio called for the “firing” and “arrest” of Special Agent Nicole Miller. Tarrio, commuted and freed from prison by Trump last month, said that Miller “must be brought to justice and made to answer for her crimes.” He called on “ALL J6ers” to “tell your stories and name those who committed these heinous acts.” He continued: “They tried to take OUR lives for political gain and we cannot let things stand. You want to Make America Great Again? This is a start.”
The threat of fascist violence against FBI and DoJ personnel is very real. Less than three years ago, a pro-Trump fascist attempted to break into the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio following the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
On February 3, in response to the purging of the FBI and DoJ, Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, led by Dick Durbin (Illinois), published a letter warning that the purges “deprive DoJ and the FBI of experienced, senior leadership and decades of experience fighting violent crime, espionage, and terrorism.”
Placing themselves firmly on the side of the police and ignoring the fascistic and dictatorial implications of Trump’s purge, the Democrats wrote that the president’s decisions were “stoking fear among the dedicated and talented workforce in our nation’s premier law enforcement agency.”