Washington — The FBI’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol rebellion, the biggest prison investigation within the company’s historical past, has given technique to probably its largest disaster.
Final week, Trump allies on the Justice Division ordered the FBI to ship a questionnaire nationwide to establish personnel who investigated Jan. 6 and make a listing for management to evaluate. The transfer got here after President Trump pardoned about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants instantly after taking workplace.
The FBI subsequently turned over a listing of about 5,000 people, which included info akin to worker ID numbers and titles.
Nevertheless, lawsuits filed by two teams of nameless FBI brokers resulted in a federal choose in Washington, D.C., on Thursday briefly blocking the Justice Division from disclosing details about these brokers to another federal entity or exterior group till additional arguments are heard within the case.
“We simply have a whole lot of unknowns, and it looks like nobody has our backs,” mentioned one of many brokers on that record, who spoke to CBS Information Thursday on situation of anonymity as a result of they worry retaliation from the Justice Division’s new management.
“Personally, I’ve misplaced sleep over this,” mentioned the agent, who investigated a number of Jan. 6 circumstances.
The agent mentioned filling out the questionnaire was “demoralizing,” and that they had been left feeling “defeated.”
“All of us really feel defeated, and for not, and actually for nothing,” the agent added.
Appearing Deputy Legal professional Common Emil Bove issued the preliminary directive in a Jan. 31 memo. And in a follow-up letter to FBI workers Wednesday, Bove wrote that “no FBI worker who merely adopted orders and carried out their duties in an moral method with respect to the January 6 investigations is liable to termination or different penalties.”
However the scrutiny and storm cloud hovering over these FBI workers and their work on circumstances that yielded greater than 1,000 responsible pleas and a 100% conviction charge in jury trials sends a chilling message, the agent warned.
The agent additionally puzzled whether or not fellow brokers, transferring ahead, can be “allowed to select and select” their investigations primarily based on what they really feel “snug” with.
When requested if the Trump administration’s demand for the record would possibly scare off brokers from taking sure circumstances sooner or later, they responded, “Completely.”
“I imply, we’re all people,” the agent mentioned.
Moreover, brokers who testified or signed their names to public court docket paperwork fear about retaliation from riot defendants or their sympathizers.
“It is nearly as if these defendants that had been all pardoned have been placed on a pedestal of being extra patriotic and extra loyal to this nation than the women and men who exit each single day, away from their households, and put their lives on the road,” the agent mentioned.
The FBI Brokers Affiliation, which represents 1000’s of energetic and retired brokers, mentioned that an agent who was investigating the lethal midair collision close to Reagan Nationwide Airport exterior Washington, D.C., was briefly pulled off that response with a purpose to fill out the questionnaire, after which returned to the crash website.
