By Steve Neavling
The Trump administration has asked the FBI for a list of all probationary employees and explanations for why each one should remain on the job, raising fresh concerns within an agency already unsettled by the first three weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, NBC News reports.
The move follows a recent effort to compile names of FBI personnel who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Last week, a federal judge approved an agreement blocking public release of that list. The Jan. 6 investigation became the largest in FBI history, with more than 1,500 defendants.
In just 21 days since Trump’s inauguration, his administration has made sweeping changes at the FBI. Trump issued mass pardons for convicted Jan. 6 rioters and appointed a vocal supporter of those rioters as the top federal prosecutor in Washington. Federal prosecutors brought in to handle Jan. 6 cases were fired, along with several Justice Department employees who had worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team, which prosecuted Trump.
High-ranking FBI officials, including the head of the Washington Field Office, were forced out, while allies of Elon Musk and other outsiders were given leadership roles at the bureau’s headquarters.
Now, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is closely involved in Musk’s work to restructure the federal government, is seeking the names of FBI employees who have been on the job less than two years. Probationary employees have limited appeal rights, making them more vulnerable to dismissal and a focus of the administration’s push to downsize the federal workforce. OPM issued a similar request to other federal agencies in recent weeks.
The demand for employee names has been met with resistance inside the FBI. Officials at the Washington Field Office are preparing to defend every probationary employee. The rapid changes have caused turmoil at a critical time for the bureau, multiple officials said.
“We are living a nightmare and are so distracted right now from the real work,” a federal law enforcement official said. “It’s crazy. Our people are a mess. We are doing our best to take care of them, but it’s hard to stay steady when you don’t know what’s next.”
Another official added, “If their goal was to paralyze law enforcement, they’ve achieved it.”
The FBI anticipated major changes after Trump’s election victory, particularly after former Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 after James Comey’s firing, announced he would step aside. But the overhaul is deeper and more disruptive than many had expected.
