'Immediate danger': FBI agents sue Trump DOJ to stop purge of Jan. 6 investigators

Editor's note: The headline of this article has been updated.

Under the leadership of Acting U.S Attorney General James McHenry — who will be replaced by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate — the Donald Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked thousands of FBI agents to fill out a questionnaire about any involvement in investigations of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And many FBI employees, according to CNN, fear that the questionnaire "is meant to be a precursor to mass firings."

The FBI Association, in an e-mail obtained by CNN, told members, "Do NOT resign or offer to resign. While we would never advocate for physical non-compliance, you need to be clear your removal is not voluntary."

Now, according to reporting from Politico and the Washington Post, FBI agents are moving forward with a class action lawsuit seeking to block Trump's DOJ leadership from putting together lists of agents who worked on January 6 defendants' cases.

READ MORE: 'Could do anything': 25 year-old Musk employee has admin access to $6 trillion payment system

Politico reporters Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, in an article published on Tuesday, February 4, explain, "The agents, who brought the federal suit anonymously, included screenshots of a three-page survey they say DOJ leadership intends to use to identify thousands of agents who worked on the politically sensitive cases. According to the lawsuit, the agents are fearful that the Trump-led Justice Department will disseminate the lists publicly or use them to exact punishment against employees deemed disloyal."

Meanwhile, in a Washington Post article also published on February 4, journalists Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein report that the nine FBI agents filing the lawsuit believe they could face physical danger if the Trump administration makes their names public.

Making their names public, the agents told a federal judge, would be "placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now-pardoned and at-large January 6 convicted felons."

Under former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, roughly 1,500 defendants were prosecuted for January 6-related crimes — some more serious than others. But when former President Joe Biden left office and President Donald Trump was sworn in for a nonconsecutive second term, Trump issued broad, sweeping pardons of nearly all January 6 defendants — including some who violently attacked police officers.

READ MORE: 'Unchecked power': Trump himself ordered firings of prosecutors working criminal cases against him

In their lawsuit, the agents say they fear "unlawful and retaliatory" action, arguing, "The purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action."

Roebuck and Stein note, "Each of the plaintiffs in the suit worked either on a January 6 case or the investigation into Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first term as president, their lawsuit states. They are seeking an injunction that would bar the Justice Department from any 'aggregation, storage, reporting, publication or dissemination' of any list or compilation of agents that would identify agents and other personnel."

READ MORE: 'Duty to leave': Federal employee who quit during Trump’s first term tells workers to bail

Read Politico's full article at this link and the Washington Post's reporting here (subscription required).