DOJ seeks list of potentially thousands of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases

The Justice Department, under leadership appointed by the Trump administration, has asked for information about potentially thousands of FBI employees across the country who were involved in work related to investigations stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and a Hamas-related case filed last year in New York.

According an email sent to the FBI workforce late Friday, and obtained by ABC News, the requested information is to be provided by Tuesday afternoon to the office of the acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, whose office will then conduct a review to determine if any “personnel actions” are warranted.

“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” the email from acting FBI director Brian Driscoll said. “I am one of those employees, as is [the] acting Deputy Director.”

It’s unclear why Bove is interested in the Hamas-related case.

“As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always,” Driscoll’s email said.

The email noted that eight senior FBI executive were also to be terminated, as directed by Bove.

Earlier Friday, several sources told ABC New that the Trump administration is compiling a list of agents and other FBI officials from around the country who they believe should be fired or forced to resign in the coming days, several sources told ABC News.

Firings were expected to begin as early as Friday, but a list was expected to be finalized on Monday, sources said.

The list of those who could be fired includes the heads of dozens of field offices across the country and could include scores of agents in the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office alone, sources said.

An FBI spokesperson said in a statement to ABC: “The FBI is declining to comment on any questions regarding FBI personnel matters. We have also instructed the public affairs officers in our field offices to decline to comment as well.”

Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, was pressed Thursday during his confirmation hearing as to whether FBI agents who worked on Smith’s investigations would be protected from “retribution,” should he be confirmed.

“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for cases,” Patel said. “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”

The FBI Agents Association said the actions “contradict the commitments” Patel made to the association ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing, saying Patel said FBI agents “would be afforded appropriate process and review and not face retribution based solely on the cases to which they were assigned.”

“If true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents,” the FBI Agents Association added in a statement. “Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure.”

Separately, about 40 prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia who had previously worked on Jan. 6 cases were also dismissed Friday by acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

The prosecutors who were dismissed had been hired to permanent career posts after serving in the office on a temporary detail, but they remained on probationary status — which cleared the way for their firings under DOJ policy, the sources said.

In the Oval Office later Friday, Trump was asked by reporters about Justice Department employees who may be fired or forced out in the coming days and he appeared to indicate it could be a “good thing.”

“If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing because they were very bad,” Trump said. “They used the Justice Department to correct their political opponents, which in itself is illegal.”

Asked if he specifically requested any action, Trump denied, “No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.”

In a Friday statement, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the potential firing of agents en masse “deeply alarming.”

“At a time when we are facing a multitude of threats to the homeland — from terrorism and espionage to drug trafficking and Salt Typhoon — it is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging dozens of the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, called the dismissal of FBI and DOJ officials a “major blow to the FBI and Justice Department’s integrity and effectiveness” in a statement Friday night.

“President Trump would rather have the FBI and DOJ full of blind admirers and loyalists than experienced law enforcement officers,” Durbin said.

On Saturday, former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump under his first administration, posted on X what he described as a message for his former colleagues at the FBI, Justice Department and U.S. attorney’s offices around the country.

“Fight for the rule of law — to protect your country and to keep your jobs. Don’t let the darkness of bad people steal the joy of public service,” he said. “Know that these people — some evil, most just followers too weak to stand up — will fade, but the need for your work will remain. Thank you for being light in the darkness.”

ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.