A top FBI agent at the New York field office has vowed to “dig in” in response to Trump’s attempts to clear out the agency.
“Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,” said an email by James E. Dennehy, a veteran agent who has run the agency’s largest and most important field office since last fall.
The email was sent after the Justice Department ordered the FBI to collect the names of all personnel who investigated the Jan 6th protests. There are fears of a large-scale purge—perhaps of as many as 6,000 agents—if the Bureau complies.
Dennehy urged his fellow agents to remain calm and not to make hasty decisions about their careers.
He also praised Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, two senior FBI officials who have so far resisted attempts by the Trump administration to remove career employees. “They are warriors,” Dennehy said of the two men.
Dennehy went on to liken the situation to his time in the Marines in the 1990s, when he was forced to hunker down in a foxhole.
“It sucked,” he wrote. “But it worked.”