Donald Trump has complained about Washington, D.C., for many years, but the president recently decided — for reasons unknown — that he wanted to lower crime rates in the nation’s capital. To that end, the Republican has decided to deploy National Guard troops to D.C. streets and place local police officers under federal control as part of a dramatic and unnecessary power grab.
But that’s not all he’s doing.
The Washington Post reported that the FBI has begun “dispatching agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime.” The New York Times published a related report, noting that the Republican administration, at least temporarily, is reassigning 120 FBI agents from their regular duties to address street crime in Washington, D.C.
It’s an odd development for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that crime rates in D.C. recently dropped to a 30-year low. What’s more, these FBI agents presumably had actual work to do. And yet, as NPR reported, “At one intersection, a minor traffic accident between a car and a moped brought at least two dozen agents running, some wearing masks and one carrying a rifle. Local D.C. Metropolitan police were also on scene.”
For generations, the bureau made it explicitly clear that its sole focus was on federal law enforcement, not local police work. In 2025, everything’s … different.
But while some FBI resources are being misused, others are being discarded altogether.
Last week, as part of Team Trump’s hyper-political revenge tour, three experienced bureau officials found themselves unemployed:
- Brian Driscoll, who briefly served as the acting FBI director earlier this year and was a widely respected figure among the bureau’s rank-and-file agents, was fired after he helped prevent a mass firing of thousands of FBI officials who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
- Walter Giardina, a retired Marine veteran and Iraq war veteran who recently lost his wife to pancreatic cancer, was fired as a result of his involvement in a number of investigations related to Trump, including the case that sent Peter Navarro to prison.
- Steve Jensen, the assistant director in charge of the D.C. field office who’d had previously served as the section chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, was fired after playing a key role in Jan. 6 investigations.
The ousting of this trio came on the heels of a series of related FBI firings, each of which appeared to be retaliatory in nature.
In a normal and healthy political environment, there would be front-page headlines everywhere that read, “Chaos at the FBI as Team Trump purges agents, exacting political revenge.” But with countless other controversies competing for attention, it’s likely that much of the country has no idea what the president’s appointees at the bureau are doing to the institution.
Nevertheless, MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian reported that hundreds of people participated in a clap-out on Driscoll’s last day, and he quoted an FBI source who said, in reference to Team Trump’s firings, “People are pissed.”
Dilanian added, “The purge that is ongoing is without precedent in the modern history of the bureau. It raises questions about whether the Trump administration is trying to turn the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency into an instrument of presidential whim — exactly the thing he baselessly accused his opponent of doing.”
A group that calls itself The Steady State, which includes former FBI officials, condemned the latest purge within the bureau. “The aim, it seems, is to transform the FBI from a respected, constitutionally grounded investigative service into a personal enforcement arm of a political figure,” the group said. “We have seen these dynamics abroad — leaders who demand loyalty from security services not to the law, but to themselves. These regimes do not end well.” And then, of course, there was the FBI Agents Association, which also condemned the firings, which the association described as “unlawful.” The FBI Agents Association added in a written statement, “FBI Agents—the rank-and-file men and women who protect this country every day—asked only for Bureau leadership to follow the law by providing Agents with fair treatment and due process. Director [Kash] Patel committed to providing that—to Agents, to Congress, and to the American people. Today, he failed to honor that commitment. “This action sets a dangerous precedent. It increases our vulnerability to criminal and national security threats at home and abroad. It prioritizes division over unity, stokes anger instead of solidarity within our ranks, and threatens to chill the work of Agents rather than support it. “We are actively reviewing all legal options to defend our members.” I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this one. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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