In Reply to: US backs unlimited presidential terms in posted by HasBen on August 06, 2025 at 15:13:57
one step closer to dictatorship.
NYT today: Trump Administration Continues Purge of F.B.I. Officials
Brian Driscoll, who was the acting director in the early days of the administration, was among those being told to leave by Friday.
The F.B.I. is forcing out at least two agents, including a former acting head of the bureau, as the director, Kash Patel, continues a purge at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Brian Driscoll, who briefly served as the acting director in the early days of the Trump administration, was among those being told to leave by Friday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel decisions that have not yet been made public.
The reason for Mr. Driscoll’s ouster was not entirely clear, but his removal will most likely deal another blow to the morale of the agency, which has faced intense scrutiny after conducting investigations that President Trump’s supporters have denounced.
Mr. Driscoll had become an unlikely champion of the bureau, accidentally catapulted to the director’s chair after Mr. Trump was inaugurated. His tumultuous tenure included fighting off what was seen as a possible purge of F.B.I. agents who had worked on the investigation into the Capitol attack.
Another agent being pushed out is Walter Giardina, who was involved in a number of investigations related to Mr. Trump, including a case that sent the trade adviser Peter Navarro to prison. The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, has criticized Mr. Giardina for what whistle-blowers have claimed is anti-Trump bias.
It was not immediately clear if the administration intended to remove other F.B.I. employees who had been targeted by Trump supporters.
Neither Mr. Driscoll nor Mr. Giardina is eligible to retire. Mr. Giardina’s wife died last month of cancer. An F.B.I. spokeswoman at the Washington field office, where Mr. Giardina worked, declined to comment.
The F.B.I.’s national press office declined to comment on the dismissals. Mr. Driscoll is the assistant director of the F.B.I.’s Critical Incident Response Group, which oversees the bureau’s elite hostage rescue team, among other responsibilities. His predecessor was also pushed out.
The fresh ousters reflect, in part, a long-running effort by senior Trump administration officials to dismiss agents and prosecutors who worked on cases related to the president. Those have included the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia during his first term, the investigation into his handling of classified documents after he left office, the investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the investigations of rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Critics of the moves say the ousters at all levels of the agency amount to little more than retaliation against agents who were assigned to or oversaw politically sensitive cases that Mr. Trump and other conservatives dislike.
In June, an agent whose only apparent connection to politically sensitive cases was being a friend of another fired agent was pushed out of the bureau. That agent, Michael Feinberg, said after his departure that the agency had begun “to decay” under Mr. Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino.
The F.B.I. also reassigned several female agents in supervisory positions who knelt during demonstrations protesting police violence in the District of Columbia in 2020.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Mr. Patel testified before Congress that he would not carry out right-wing grievances.
“And as I told you in your office, I have no interest, no desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Mr. Patel said. “There will be no politicization at the F.B.I. There will be no retributive actions taken by any F.B.I., should I be confirmed as the F.B.I. director.”