The president commented on agents who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7 said that some of the FBI agents who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol will be fired.
“I’ll fire some of them, because some of them were corrupt,” he said during a press conference in Washington. “I have no doubt about that.”
The FBI recently turned over information about agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), complying with an order from acting DOJ leadership.
Acting U.S. Deputy General Emil Bove said in a recent missive that agents who acted ethically should not be concerned about repercussions but that those “who acted with corrupt or partisan intent” should be worried.
Trump’s comments on Friday were in response to a reporter who asked whether he was planning to fire the agents who worked on the Jan. 6 cases.
“I got to know a lot about that business, that world. I got to know a lot about that world, and we had some corrupt agents,” Trump said. “Those people are gone, or they will be gone, and it will be done quickly and very surgically.”
The FBI declined to comment.
Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, Kash Patel, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Democrats in the upper chamber this week delayed the vote.
The Senate did earlier in the week confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general. Shortly after being sworn in, Bondi ordered a review of the cases against Trump and Jan. 6 defendants.
A new working group will focus on actions taken while Joe Biden was president that appear to have been “designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives,” Bondi said in a memorandum.
Trump has alleged that the Biden administration “engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process.” He was charged in two cases for allegedly mishandling sensitive documents and interfering with the certification of the 2020 electoral votes. Both cases were dropped in the wake of his 2024 election win.
Trump on Friday said his administration was going to “bring back the reputation of the FBI, which has been hurt very badly.”
The FBI was headed during the Biden administration by Christopher Wray, a Trump nominee whom the president increasingly criticized as time went on.
Wray has said that the FBI has acted with professionalism and integrity.