Politics
NEW: Trump DOJ Fires All Prosecutors Who Worked On January 6 Cases
The Trump Administration on Friday fired a handful of prosecutors who were involved in the highly politicized prosecutions of January 6 Capitol protesters. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove also instructed acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll to turn over a complete list of agents who worked on January 6 cases no later than Wednesday evening, while eight senior FBI officials were fired effective immediately.
Bove ordered the firings of January 6 prosecutors — many of whom have been voicing their disdain for President Trump and his supporters on MSNBC — just a few days after Trump pardoned more than 1,500 January 6 prisoners and defendants. The affected prosecutors worked on the sprawling, four-year case that saw heavily armed FBI agents raiding the homes of Trump supporters for non-violent crimes.
More than 600 protesters were charged with felony “obstruction of an official proceeding,” a dubious charge that drew from laws established in the wake of the Enron corruption scandal. The statute was never used to prosecute political protesters before and was ultimately tossed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Still, hundreds of Trump supporters were convicted of a felony and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for conduct that amounted to misdemeanor trespassing. Even those who were not convicted of the bogus felony count and were instead convicted of low level misdemeanors were sentenced to federal prison terms, something that was relatively unheard of prior to the January 6 cases.
No such investigation was launched to round up people who protested on government property and attacked the White House during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. Pro-Palestine protesters — many of whom have trespassed in federal buildings and interrupted sessions of Congress — were also spared from the ruthless prosecution endured by January 6 protesters.

D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who oversaw the four-year investigation, provides an update on January 6, 2024
In total, about two-dozen federal prosecutors who worked on the January 6 cases were fired on Friday. Acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin instructed employees to preserve all documents and communications relating to the cases while a formal investigation is conducted.
In a separate memo, Bove instructed acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll to provide a list of all agents who worked on January 6 cases and raids. This could amount to thousands of agents, as January 6 arrests were made in just about every state.
In the memo titled “Terminations,” Bove laid out that the “subversive” employees cannot be trusted to carry out President Trump’s agenda. “This memorandum sets forth a series of directives, authorized by the Acting Attorney General, regarding personnel matters to be addressed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Bove wrote.
The deputy attorney general then instructed Driscoll to fire eight employees by 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, February 3. “I do not believe that the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” Bove, a former defense lawyer, wrote in the memo.
Eight senior FBI officials, including the directors of the bureau’s field offices in Washington D.C. and Miami, were among those fired immediately. “The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systemic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” Bove’s memo noted. “This includes the FBI.”
Acting Director Driscoll is currently obstructing the Trump Administration’s directives and has refused to turn over the list. “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,” he wrote.
Multiple FBI agents who spoke with NBC News on the condition of anonymity praised Driscoll for “pushing back hard” against the Trump Administration. “Bottom line — DOJ came over and wanted to fire a bunch of J6 agents. Driscoll is an absolute stud. Held his ground and told WH proxy, DOJ, to F**k Off,” one agent said.
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