An anonymous group of FBI agents who assisted on the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol have filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the Justice Department’s plans to review the FBI’s workforce and scrutinize agents who may have worked on the sensitive investigations. The nine agents are suing the Justice Department and its interim head, Acting Attorney General James McHenry, in a class action lawsuit on behalf of all affected FBI agents. They are asking a federal judge to prevent the public release of the names of the agents who could face scrutiny.
According to a memo reviewed by CBS News, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll to compile a list of all current and former FBI employees who were assigned “at any time” to the Jan. 6 investigation “to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
More than 1,000 FBI agents across the country on Sunday were asked to complete questionnaires about their involvement in the Jan. 6 and Trump probes as part of a Justice Department evaluation of the workforce. There is no indication yet about what actions the Justice Department may take against anyone on the compiled lists and so far, a handful of senior career officials have been fired, while rank-and-file agents remain on the job.
According to the class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday afternoon in D.C. federal court: “Plaintiffs are employees of the FBI who worked on Jan. 6 and/or Mar-a-Lago cases, and who have been informed that they are likely to be terminated in the very near future (the week of February 3-9, 2025) for such activity. They intend to represent a class of at least 6,000 current and former FBI agents and employees who participated in some manner in the investigation and prosecution of crimes and abuses of power by Donald Trump, or by those acting at his behest.”
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the DOJ from “aggregation, storage, reporting, publication or dissemination of any list or compilation of information that would identify FBI agents and other personnel, and tie them directly to Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago case activities,” referring to the Capitol attack and the probe into President Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
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