The Trump administration’s apparent attempts to purge or retaliate against federal agents are moving closer to a court reckoning, with the filing of civil lawsuits by current and former FBI employees who’ve taken legal action against the president’s alleged retribution.
In one of the suits, unnamed plaintiffs said they worked on Jan. 6 cases and the classified documents case, both of which implicated Donald Trump in federal criminal activity before his election led the Justice Department to dismiss the cases, because of its policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. The plaintiffs said they intend to represent a class of at least 6,000 current and former FBI agents and employees.
Upon returning to the presidency, the plaintiffs said in their complaint filed Tuesday, “Mr. Trump has ordered the DOJ to conduct a review and purge of FBI personnel involved in these investigations and prosecutions,” a directive they called “unlawful and retaliatory” and said “violates the Civil Service Reform Act.”
Noting that employees were asked to fill out a Jan. 6-related survey, the plaintiffs said that they think it will be used to “identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action,” and that they “reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.”
The plaintiffs argue that gathering, retaining and disclosing their activities related to Trump’s acts violates their First Amendment rights, as well as their Fifth Amendment and privacy rights, and they want the court to block the publication or dissemination of these surveys or any information from them.
“It has been widely reported that Elon Musk and persons working with him have recently attempted to access government databases that house personal information, without regard to security protocols, and without a legitimate business purpose,” the plaintiffs noted in their complaint.
Separately, the FBI Agents Association and other anonymous plaintiffs filed a complaint to remedy what they called the government’s “unlawful retaliation for their pursuit of lawful and appropriately commenced cases and investigations in their capacity while employed with the FBI regarding the attacks on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
They similarly want court protection from the Trump administration’s “anticipated retaliatory decision to expose their personal information for opprobrium and potential vigilante action by those who they were investigating.”
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