Senior FBI agents continue the Trump administration on their layoffs: NPR

The Trump administration launched a “remote campaign” against senior Federal Bureau of Investigation officials who refused to show loyalty to President Trump, dismissing them last month for inappropriate political reasons before being able to collect early retirement services, according to a new trial of three FBI senior agents.

The trial describes the leaders of the FBI and the Ministry of Justice as a supporter and inept – fighting to please the White House and willing to reject anyone crossing Trump. During his confirmation audience of the Senate, the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, promised to protect the employees from the inappropriate political dismissal. But once he arrived at the headquarters of the office, the trial alleys, a Patel deliberately chose to follow the directives of the White House rather than the federal law.

“His decision to do so has degraded the national security of the country in dismissing three of the FBI’s most experienced operational managers, each experts in the prevention of terrorism and the reduction of violent crimes,” said the trial.

The three complainants are among the older FBI agents and the most hailed to have worked at the recent memory office. Brian Driscoll won awards for bravery and value and managed the hostage rescue teams before being a brief director of the FBI interim this year. Steven Jensen managed the Washington field office and managed some 2,000 employees working on national security and violent crimes. Spencer Evans supervised high -level investigations, including a Tesla Cybertruck bombing outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas this year, according to the trial.

Men allege that their layoffs have violated their right to the fifth amendment to the regular procedure and the guarantee of the first amendment to the free association and freedom of expression.

“They were ready to sacrifice people who had done nothing of their lives than to protect the American people, without any other reason, than to be a kind of emblem of revenge or remuneration,” said the three officials of the FBI licensees. “Going after people to make a statement became greater than the main mission of the FBI itself.”

The case marks the second time that the office is continued by its own agents this year. The three men had served for two decades at the time of their dismissal. But they could not officially withdraw because they had not yet reached the age of 50.

Asked about the trial, the White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “Kash Patel directs the FBI and as director that he supervises and manages all aspects of the agency”.

The FBI refused to comment.

The White House requires loyalty to Trump

For Driscoll, problems of problems started even before the inauguration, according to the trial. Around mid-January, he received a phone call asking for his desire to play an older role in the FBI. A controversial young member of the White House transition team with minimal experience asked Driscoll: “When did you start supporting President Trump?” “Survey on his voting file and solicit his reflections on the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The trial said that Driscoll refused to answer questions on his voting file and Trump, as FBI employees are not supposed to share personal political opinions on work.

Driscoll learned that he would soon be used to serve as an interim deputy director of the office, the second in command. But on the day of the inauguration, a report by the White House lists temporary agencies qualified DRISCOLL as an interim director. He had been promoted – by mistake. Emil Bove, then responsible for the Doj, later said that it was an “office error” that the White House was “will not be prepared” to correct, said the trial.

A week later, Bove, who was an interim assistant attorney general, moved away from Driscoll and another FBI official after a security briefing. Bove told them that he had faced the pressure from the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, to see “symmetrical measures at the FBI as it had taken place at the Doj”, according to court documents.

For them, this meant generalized reallocations and connections, as is the dismissal of prosecutors who worked in the riot of the Capitol on January 6 and in the teams that sang Trump to poorly manage the national security secrets and the efforts to overthrow the 2020 elections.

Trump, in the past, accused the Ministry of Justice to target him unfairly, he and his supporters, in political motivation surveys, and sought to reshape the agency since his return to the White House.

Bove then demanded a list of FBI workers who participated in the investigations of January 6, 2021 – the largest survey in the history of the Ministry of Justice, which Trump takes place with mass lengths on his first day of power this year. Driscoll refused, according to the trial, claiming that he would endanger national security and violate the laws and federal rules of the public service.

The dispute has reached the media and prompted some FBI agents to create fanciful memes praising Driscoll for defending the labor market. The trial said that the wave of support exasperated Bove, which was described in a video like the bad Bane, while Driscoll was represented as Batman. (Bove has since been promoted a position as a federal judge for life at the Pennsylvania court of appeal.)

Finally, under pressure, Driscoll has drawn up a list of 6,000 people who included employee identification numbers, not names, in order to protect FBI workers from reprisals and threats.

Presumed deputy director focus too much on social media

Like Driscoll, the Trump administration promoted former FBI agent Steven Jensen only a few weeks before he dismiss him. Jensen helped coordinate the office’s response to the headset of the Capitol over four years ago. But he was raised to lead the FBI Washington field office under the new agency leaders this year.

Jensen worked in close collaboration with the new assistant director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, a former right -wing podcastor and secret service agent. Among other tasks, the trial claims that Jensen has regularly informed Bongino of high priority surveys on pipe bombs placed near the Capitol on January 6; the flight of the Supreme Court decision project canceling the right to abortion; And the discovery of cocaine in the White House during the Biden administration.

“During these briefings, Jensen was alarmed by the intense information from Bongino on the increase in online engagement thanks to his social media profiles in order to modify the perception of supporters of the FBI,” said the trial. “The emphasis that Bongino has placed on the creation of content for its social media pages could risk prevailing on more deliberate analyzes of surveys.”

The trial also details Jensen’s interactions with a patel, the director of the FBI, on the disclosure of the name of an FBI agent who worked on several politically sensitive cases. Jensen met Patel to ask him not to publicly appoint the agent, lest he be subject to abuse and online threats. The agent’s wife only had days to live, in the middle of a battle against stadium cancer IV.

At the end of the meeting, Patel told Jensen a piece of flashy challenge registered with the word “director” at the top and “ka $ h patel” below. These pieces are popular in the national security community as an appreciation token, but it was much larger than usual. “Patel told Jensen that he wanted him to be one of the first recipients of his new coin,” said the trial.

Shortly after, Jensen and the agent whose woman fought cancer were both dismissed. The word came on August 8, in a letter of a single page signed by patel.