President-elect Donald Trump has demanded the FBI retain all records from its diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) office after the Bureau announced its closure.
Trump took to his social-media platform Truth Social to make the demand.
In a post he wrote, “We demand that the FBI preserve and retain all records, documents, and information on the now closing DEI Office—Never should have been opened and, if it was, should have closed long ago. Why is it that they’re closing one day before the Inauguration of a new Administration? The reason is, CORRUPTION!”
The agency confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that it had “[taken] steps to close the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), effective by December 2024.”
In May, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting information about the FBI’s use of DEI initiatives.
“The law enforcement and intelligence capabilities of the FBI are degrading because the FBI is no longer hiring ‘the best and brightest’ candidates to fill the position of Special Agent of the FBI,” Jordan wrote.
“An increasing number of lower quality candidates—described by one source as ‘bread crumbs’ because they were rejected by other federal law enforcement agencies—are applying to become FBI Special Agents; and the FBI is selecting those candidates to become FBI Special Agents because they satisfy the FBI’s priority to meet Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandates.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn also wrote to Wray, in early January after the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, to say that the FBI’s “radical” DEI policies had “endangered Americans.”
“I am deeply concerned that—under your leadership—the Bureau has prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives over its core mission of protecting the American people,” she said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said he will resign before Trump’s inauguration. Trump has chosen Kash Patel to head the bureau. Patel is expected to make wide-ranging reforms and to root out corruption.