A group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, moving to block the identification of agency employees who worked on the January 6 investigations. According to the move, the agency is seeking to prevent what they fear could be retaliatory efforts against FBI employees involved in the probe into the Capitol riots in 2021.
The lawsuit was filed anonymously with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which claimed that efforts to review or discriminate against FBI employees who participated in the January 6 investigations would be “unlawful and retaliatory.” The suit further argued that such action would violate civil service protections under federal law.
The lawsuit further pointed to a questionnaire employees were required to fill out about their role in J6 investigations or the Mar-a-Lago investigation headed by former Special Counsel Jack Smith. “Some Plaintiffs were required to fill out the survey themselves, others were told that their supervisors would be filling out the form,” the suit said, before adding “were informed that the aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management.”
The anonymous plaintiffs expressed concern that the Trump administration could single out employees and fire them. “Plaintiffs assert that the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action,” the suit said. “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.”
Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued sweeping preemptive pardons to various family members and political allies, including the members of the January 6 Committee. The move demonstrates a fear among Democrats that President Trump will weaponize his administration against his political opponents over the next few years.
Biden said, “In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and the members and staff of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”
He added, “On January 6, 2021, American democracy was tested when a mob of insurrectionists attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn a fair and free election by force and violence. In light of the significance of that day, Congress established the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol to investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes of the insurrection. The Select Committee fulfilled this mission with integrity and a commitment to discovering the truth.”
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Watch Trump flip the script on a reporter about J6 below:
“Rather than accept accountability, those who perpetrated the January 6th attack have taken every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those who participated in the Select Committee in an attempt to rewrite history, erase the stain of January 6th for partisan gain, and seek revenge, including by threatening criminal prosecutions,” the former president continued.