“The very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate F.B.I. agents and other personnel and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance by Donald Trump and his agents,” the lawsuit alleges.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who were assigned to investigate President Donald Trump have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Justice, which recently began compiling a list of all F.B.I. employees involved in Trump-related inquiries.
According to The Associated Press, the F.B.I. agents filed two separate lawsuits in Washington. No individual plaintiffs are identified in either complaint, but both ask the court to prevent the Department of Justice from collecting agents’ names—and, potentially, disseminating them.
The F.B.I. has so far responded to the Justice Department’s demands by only providing agents’ unique personal identifier codes. However, many current F.B.I. employees fear that they could be disciplined, demoted, or even fired for investigating Trump.
“Plaintiffs assert that the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action. Plaintiffs reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons,” one of the two the lawsuit says.
Attorneys observe that, while on the campaign trail, Trump “repeatedly stated that he would personify ‘the vengeance’ or ‘the retribution,’ for those whom he called ‘political hostages,’ for their actions during the Jan. 6 attack.”
“The very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate F.B.I. agents and other personnel and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance by Donald Trump and his agents,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint cited the recent firing of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against Trump, as evidence of the list’s motivation.
“Donald Trump has made repeated public pronouncements of his intent to exact revenge upon persons he perceives to be disloyal to him by simply executing their duties in investigating acts incited by him and persons loyal to him,” the lawsuit says. “Whatever the Trump administration believes about Plaintiffs’ political affiliation, it clearly believes that persons who were involved in the investigation and prosecution of Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases are insufficiently politically affiliated with Donald Trump to be entitled to retain their employment.”
Natalie Bara, the president of the co-plaintiff F.B.I. Agents Association, told reporters on Tuesday that agents who had spent hours recovering body parts from the recent mid-air collision outside of Reagan National Airport “had to return to the office—not to debrief, not to work on cases, but to fill out a mandatory survey on any involvement in investigations related to Jan. 6.”
“This is the reality for our agents today,” Bara said. “They’re being scrutinized, placed on lists, and facing the possibility of losing their jobs.”
The Associated Press notes that it is highly unusual for “rank-and-file” F.B.I. agents to face retaliation for involvement in investigations, given that they do not typically choose their own cases.
Sources
FBI agents sue over Justice Dept. effort to ID employees involved in Trump-related investigations
FBI, DOJ strike agreement in lawsuit over January 6 agent list amid fears of retaliation
Join the conversation!