A group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots, in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.
The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit anonymously in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that any effort to review or discriminate against FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 investigations would be “unlawful and retaliatory,” and a violation of civil service protections under federal law.
The lawsuit cited the questionnaire employees were required to fill out detailing their specific role in the Jan. 6 investigation and Mar-a-Lago investigation led by former special counsel Jack Smith.
FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION
“Some Plaintiffs were required to fill out the survey themselves, others were told that their supervisors would be filling out the form,” the lawsuit noted, adding that the employees “were informed that the aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management.”
“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.”
President Donald Trump declined to answer questions on Monday over whether his administration would remove FBI employees involved in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, telling reporters only that he believes the bureau is “corrupt” and that his nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, will “straighten it out.”