By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – FBI employees were ordered on Sunday to answer a detailed list of questions about any work they may have done on criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, stoking fear among staff about a fresh round of firings at the law enforcement agency.
“I know myself and others receiving this questionnaire have a lot of questions and concerns, which I am working hard to get answers to,” Chad Yarbrough, the assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters, wrote in a weekend email seen by Reuters.
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The list of questions in the memo, seen by Reuters, direct employees to give their job title, any role they played in the Jan. 6 investigations and whether they helped supervise such investigations. Yarbrough told employees the answers are due by 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) on Monday
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove on Friday fired eight senior FBI officials from agency headquarters as well as the heads of the Miami and Washington, D.C., field offices.
Another memo written by Bove on Friday also demanded that the FBI by Tuesday at noon ET (1700 GMT) turn over to him a list of every employee who worked on Jan. 6 cases, as well as a list of those who worked on a criminal case filed last year against leaders of the militant Hamas group in connection with the Gaza war.
Bove last week fired more than a dozen career Justice Department prosecutors who worked on the two now-dismissed criminal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith against Trump, one involving actions taken to try to overturn the 2020 election results and the other involving classified government documents.
A FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the questionnaire.
Democrats and other critics have said Trump’s team is carrying out a purge of FBI and Justice Department officials who played roles in the criminal cases against Trump and the Jan. 6 rioters.
On Trump’s first day back in office on Jan. 20, he commuted the sentences of 14 people in connection with the Capitol attack, and pardoned the rest – including those who violently attacked law enforcement officers.
Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, in an email to staff on Friday announcing details about the order from the Bove, said the request “encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts.”
“I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director (Robert) Kissane,” Driscoll noted.
Despite reports about other firings throughout the bureau, emails seen by Reuters from both the FBI Agents Association and from James Dennehy, the assistant FBI director in charge of the New York office, made it clear that no one else had been asked to resign.
Nevertheless, some employees on Friday started to clear out their desks amid concerns they might be next, according to the FBI Agents Association email seen by Reuters.
“Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the FBI and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy,” Dennehy wrote on Friday, saying he gave credit to Driscoll and Kissane for “fighting for this organization.”
Dennehy added that other than the select group of people named in Bove’s memo, “NO ONE has been told they are being removed at this time.”
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham)
