Emil Bove exiting the New York State appellate court, Monday, April 8, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie).
The current person temporarily in charge at the Department of Justice, who previously worked as former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, is accusing the temporary FBI leader of being insubordinate for not following an order to provide the names of the employees who led the investigations into the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
In a memo sent recently, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III mentioned that he had asked the acting FBI head Brian J. Driscoll and his deputy, Robert C. Kissane, multiple times to identify the team in Washington, D.C., responsible for the investigation regarding the events on January 6, 2021.
Driscoll and Kissane have consistently refused to obey the request as numerous lawsuits have been filed by current agents who are concerned that the Trump administration might remove those they feel are not loyal enough to the president from the bureau. Additionally, some complaints filed in criminal court suggest that the identifying information could be made public, potentially putting the agents at risk from the approximately 1,500 convicted rioters that Trump pardoned on his first day in office.
In the memo, Bove said he requested the information so the Justice Department could “conduct a review” of the agents and their conduct in connection with Trump’s executive order seeking to “end the weaponization of the federal government.”
“FBI acting leadership refused to comply,” he wrote in the memo.
According to Bove, that refusal to follow his directive forced him to seek the names of all the agents who worked on investigations into the Capitol riot, which includes about 5,000 of the bureau’s 38,000 agents.
“That insubordination necessitated, among other things, the directive in my January 31, 2025 memo to identify all agents assigned to investigations relating to January 6, 2021,” he wrote.
In one of the several federal lawsuits seeking to block the Justice Department from using or publishing any list of agents who worked on the investigation, the plaintiff agents said they had to fill out a survey questioning them about their work at the bureau.
“What was your/your employee’s title when you/your employee participated in investigation(s) or prosecution(s) of events that occurred at or near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021?” read one of the questions.
“What was your/your employee’s role in the investigation(s) or prosecution(s) relating to events that occurred at or near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021? Select all that apply,” read another.
The agents alleged that the survey was part of a directive issued by Trump instructing the DOJ to “conduct a review and purge” of FBI personnel as rumors of mass firings swirled in Washington. The agents’ fear of reprisal from the administration appears to be well-founded as the Justice Department on Friday terminated all of the prosecutors involved in the federal criminal cases brought against Trump (which were later dropped due to long-standing DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president).
However, Bove sought to disabuse agents fearing retribution for simply carrying out the tasks assigned to them by their superiors.
“Let me be clear: No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,” he wrote. “The only individuals who should be concerned about the process initiated by my January 31, 2025 memo are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from Department leadership, or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the FBI. There is no honor in the ongoing efforts to distort that simple truth or protect culpable actors from scrutiny on these issues, which have politicized the Bureau, harmed its credibility, and distracted the public from the excellent work being done every day.”
