DOJ directs FBI to fire 8 top officials, identify employees involved in Jan. 6, Hamas cases for review

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the acting FBI director Friday evening directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review, Fox News has learned. 

Bove's memo to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, which was obtained by Fox News, asserts the Department of Justice cannot trust the FBI employees to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda.

The subject of the memo is "Terminations."

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"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. 

Bove, a former Trump defense attorney, directed Driscoll to fire eight specific FBI employees by Monday, Feb. 3, at 5:30 p.m. 

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a former Trump attorney, directed the FBI acting director to fire seven specific employees by Monday. (Angela Weiss/Pool/Getty Images)

"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 wrote in the memo. 

Bove cited comments made by President Trump on his first day back in office, in which Trump accused the Biden administration's law enforcement and intelligence agencies of going after Biden's political adversaries.

"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."

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Bove said the FBI’s "prior leadership actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as ‘a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years’ with respect to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"The weaponization of the FBI’s security clearance process is similarly troubling," Bove continued. "So too are issues relating to the FBI’s reticence to address instructions and requests from, among other places, the Justice Department." 

The seal for the Justice Department in Washington Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Bove said the problems "are symptomatic of deficiencies in previous leadership that must now be addressed."

Bove wrote that he "deem[s] these terminations necessary, pursuant to President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order, entitled ‘Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government’ in order to continue the process of restoring a culture of integrity, credibility, accountability, and responsiveness to the leadership and directives of President Trump and the Justice Department." 

Beyond the terminations of the eight employees, Bove directed Driscoll to identify by noon Tuesday, Feb. 4, "all current and former FBI personnel assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions" relating to "the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021" and United States v. Haniyeh, a terrorism case against six Hamas leaders charged with planning and carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel. 

The defendants in that case include Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, high-level Hamas leaders believed to have been assassinated in 2024 by Israeli operatives.

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Bove ordered that the lists of employees Driscoll should compile "should include relevant supervisory personnel in FBI regional offices and field divisions, as well as at FBI headquarters." 

"For each employee included in the list, provide the current title, office to which the person is assigned, role in the investigation or prosecution, and date of last activity relating to the investigation or prosecution," Bove directed. "Upon timely receipt of the requested information, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General will commence a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary." 

Fox News also obtained the letter Driscoll sent to bureau employees Friday evening after receiving Bove’s memo. In it, Driscoll notified employees he was directed to fire the specific employees Bove identified "unless these employees have retired beforehand." 

"I have been personally in touch with each of these impacted employees," Driscoll wrote. 

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, D.C.? (Brooks Kraft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

As for the directive to compile a list of FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 and Hamas cases, Driscoll said that 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 Kissane," Driscoll wrote. "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.

"We will be back in touch with more information as soon as we can. In the meantime, stay safe, and take care of each other." 

The FBI declined to comment on any personnel matters, including names, titles or numbers.

The DOJ directive comes after Acting Attorney General James McHenry earlier this week fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump. Fox News Digital exclusively reported the action Monday. 

Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an indictment, including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Justice Department Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A DOJ official Monday used similar language to that seen in Bove's letter, telling Fox News Digital McHenry "does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda." 

The directive also comes a day after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that whistleblower emails were shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, revealing that a former FBI agent, Timothy Thibault, allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication. 

Bove's memo also comes a day after President Trump's nominee to lead the bureau, Kash Patel, testified during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Trump and allies have maintained the law enforcement agency was weaponized against him and conservatives across the nation. 

The House Judiciary Committee, for months, investigated the FBI for the creation of a memo targeting Catholics and parents at school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

President Trump on Friday evening denied any involvement in the DOJ directive. 

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"We have some very bad people over there," Trump said Friday. "They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn't involved in that.

"I'll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished," he added. "But if they fired some people over there, that's a good thing, because they were very bad. They were very corrupt people, very corrupt, and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization. They used, they used the Justice Department to go after their political opponent, which in itself is illegal. And obviously it didn't work."