A combination of file photos show U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. April 9, 2018 and former FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017
As President Donald Trump began his takeover of the Justice Department, it was revealed that anyone who touched any part of the investigations into him would be fired. The purge of prosecutors began. But it also extended into the FBI. While a group of DOJ lawyers came together to help each other, those fired from the FBI are now doing the same.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the FBI Support Network was established as a kind of "offshoot of the Justice Connection organization, made up of former Justice Department employees who offer legal, mental health or job search services to current agency employees."
Under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel, agents are being pressured to do things that they wouldn't normally do. It gives them the option to either be fired, or break long-held norms or ethics.
“There’s an incredible amount of tension inside the agency right now,” said former top executive Michael Mason. “We want our colleagues who are still in the service of the F.B.I. to know there are people out here who recognize what is happening. People are being fired without any due process as the Justice Department is being weaponized in a way that is totally unfamiliar to those of us who served long and distinguished careers there.”
The website for the group explains, "The FBI’s workforce is under assault like never before. This administration is firing and intimidating Special Agents, Intelligence Analysts, and professional staff for blatantly partisan reasons. Political leaders are using the FBI’s authority to open poorly predicated investigations to interfere with elections, advance ideological goals, and seek vengeance."
The group will work to connect agents to "legal, mental health, and employment support" that they may need in the coming years of the Trump administration.
In a video announcing the formation of the group, former acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll made a call to action.
“It’s time for those of us who served our country with the F.B.I. to offer our assistance to the special agents, intelligence analysts and the professional staff who are under attack," he said. "Those facing these unprecedented times are not alone."
The Times said that Patel maintains that no one was fired for political reasons.
Former counterintelligence agent Michael Feinberg questioned Patel's denials
There is now a “wide gulf between what the director says in public and in testimony before Congress, and what the workforce sees happening to their colleagues on a daily basis,” he said.
“I think the way a lot of employees feel right now is that at least some senior career executives have been willing to compromise with Kash Patel in those matters in an effort to secure their own employment. It’s difficult to articulate how much of a betrayal of the F.B.I. ethos this is," he added.