Trump administration fires ex-acting FBI director seen as champion of rank-and-file staff
The FBI is firing the former acting director who led the bureau at the start of the Trump administration and refused to turn over a list of agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Brian Driscoll, who has returned to a career post at the bureau since departing its top spot, has been asked to leave by Friday, a source familiar confirmed to The Hill.
Driscoll has been viewed as a champion of the bureau’s rank-and-file staff. He declined to turn over a list of the thousands of FBI agents who worked on investigations into those that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The request to do so sparked a lawsuit from FBI staff members who feared the list would be used to target agents and could lead to retribution.
The FBI declined to comment.
Driscoll, in a final note to staff shared on LinkedIn by a former FBI staffer, said he was not given a reason for his removal.
“Last night I was informed that tomorrow will be my last day in the FBI. I understand that you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I currently have no answers. No cause has been articulated at this time,” he wrote.
“Please know that it has been the honor of my life to serve alongside each of you. Thank you for allowing me to stand on your shoulders throughout it all. Our collective sacrifices for those we serve is, and will always be, worth it. I regret nothing. You are my heroes, and I remain in your debt.”
Driscoll’s removal appears to be part of a wider purge.
Other outlets reported Thursday that Steve Jensen, the assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office, was asked to leave, as was Walter Giardina, an agent who worked on a number of cases involving President Trump.
Jensen’s work was cited by the Justice Department just Wednesday, which included a quote from him in advertising the arrest of a soldier accused of sharing national defense information with Russia. He was also slated to appear at a Justice Department press conference Thursday, but a deputy came in his stead.
FBI Director Kash Patel promoted Jensen to lead the Washington Field Office in April.
“I want the American public to realize what we did,” he said during a May appearance on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, before going on to reference Jan. 6 and crediting Jensen for his response.
“That man was in a position where he literally fought back against the machine who was saying, ‘wWe want to politicize this event. We want to politicize this event.’ And at the end of the day, remember, Maria, there’s a chain of command here. So you can fight back your chain of command to a certain degree before they fire you, and Steve Jensen and other folks were promoted because they embody what the American public demands of F.B.I. agents.”
Giardina has been a target of Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who asked the FBI and the Justice Department to turn over a number of documents about his work.
The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings, saying agents were “summarily fired without due process for doing their jobs investigating potential federal crimes.”
“Agents are not given the option to pick and choose their cases, and these agents carried out their assignments with professionalism and integrity. Most importantly, they followed the law,” the group said in a statement.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the firings a clear case of retribution.
“The continued purging of experienced, nonpartisan FBI agents by the Trump administration is nothing short of alarming. These are individuals have dedicated their careers to protecting the American people, and their firings are part of a disturbing pattern of retaliation and politicization at an institution charged with safeguarding national security and the rule of law,” he said in a statement.
“The American people deserve to know that federal law enforcement is free to follow the evidence without fear of retribution from the White House or its lackeys.”
The move is likely to hurt morale at the FBI, which has seen the firing of a number of career leaders.
The Trump administration in February forced out the five highest career positions at the FBI along with the heads of numerous field offices, including the then-leader in Washington, D.C.
Driscoll pushed back when asked to turn over the list of agents to Emil Bove, then serving in the No. 3 role at the Justice Department.
“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Driscoll wrote in an email to staff at the time.
“I am one of those employees.”
Driscoll has been with the FBI for more than 20 years, recently serving as the head of the Newark Field Office. He also previously served on the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team.
Known internally as Drizz, his pushback to the Trump administration sparked numerous memes in his honor, with one depicting him as a saint and another asking “What Would Drizz Do?”
Updated at 3:09 p.m. EDT