From Boast to Bust

Concealing the names of thousands of FBI employees involved in the biggest criminal investigation in history represents just another coverup of the FBI's role in the events of January 6.

FBI Agents Hunt Down a J6er

For four years, rank and file of the Federal Bureau of Investigation played the role of courageous heroes fighting the “domestic terror” threat posed by Americans who protested at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Invasive investigations typically involved FBI agents interrogating the family members, co-workers, and even childhood friends of their J6 targets. FBI investigators scoured bank records, Amazon accounts, credit card statements, travel receipts, social media posts including direct messages and other private records in an attempt to build “terrorism” cases.

Following those investigations, FBI agents clad in military-style gear carrying powerful weapons and using battering rams executed hundreds of surprise raids across the country, even those accused of nonviolent offenses. And it wasn’t just the target and his family who were traumatized by the excessive show of force; quiet neighborhoods were abruptly awakened by an FBI agent shouting into a bullhorn during predawn hours to call out the name of the alleged terrorist in their midst as tanks blocked off nearby roads.

Defendants were then hauled to local jails to face more questioning by FBI agents, often without the presence of an attorney, who then proceeded to seize electronic devices, clothing, photographs, and other items that represented “evidence” of their crime. (The FBI even took a Lego set of the U.S. Capitol found in the home of a middle school history teacher.)

For those J6ers spared a violent arrest, FBI agents nonetheless visited their home and place of work demanding answers related to their participation in the protest before arresting them. Agents representing the “FBI Joint Counterterrorism Task Force” proudly signed more than 1,500 criminal complaints between January 2021 and January 2025—keeping up a steady pace of arrests right until Inauguration Day.

They testified—publicly—as government witnesses during more than 150 jury trials, helping the Department of Justice win a perfect conviction rate before D.C. juries.

The largest criminal investigation in the DOJ history gave FBI agents and employees lots of swagger. After all, former FBI director Christopher Wray often bragged how each of the FBI’s 56 field offices was involved in the so-called “Capitol Siege” probe. Those same field offices posted a nonstop stream of press releases boasting about their latest J6 capture and patting themselves on the back for rounding up fellow Americans who supported President Trump.

“Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity,” You Say, FBI?

But the swagger suddenly is gone. Trump’s election not only ended the J6 prosecution but turned the tables in a way the FBI never saw coming. Wray resigned rather than wait to be fired by President Trump; several top FBI officials recently cleaned out their desks before they too were relieved of duty by Trump DOJ chiefs.

And thousands of FBI employees who at one time wore their J6 work as a badge of honor have gone into hiding of sorts, leaving ultimate sissy men Norm Eisen and Mark Zaid to do their tough talking for them in court.

A pair of lawsuits—one representing anonymous FBI employees and one representing the FBI Agents Association with more anonymous FBI agents—seeks to prohibit the DOJ from publicly releasing the names of personnel who were even tangentially involved in the sprawling operation.

The hubbub started after Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, initiated a bureau-wide survey seeking details about the J6 investigation in compliance with the president’s executive order on the weaponization of the DOJ. Bove presented a series of questions asking employees to account for their work on J6 cases.

This prompted another wave of anxiety and panic at the bureau, according to news reports, “as a fear of mass firings swirl[ed] through the FBI,” upon receipt of the questionnaire.

Internal resistance from Brian Driscoll, the acting FBI director, provided more defense for the J6 employees in his temporary care. He produced the results of the survey to Bove by the Tuesday deadline—but without the required names.

After Bove called Driscoll “insubordinate” in a memo the next day, Driscoll finally coughed up the names. But in keeping with the bureau’s reputation for shadiness and secrecy, Driscoll sent the names on a system reserved for classified material.

“I want to be clear that as of now we do not have information indicating the Department of Justice intends to disseminate these lists publicly, and they are fully aware of the risks we believe are inherent in doing so,” Driscoll wrote in another email to FBI personnel. “We will let you know immediately if we learn the Department’s intentions regarding these lists changes (sic).”

Having joined the bureau in 2007 under Robert Mueller and then work for his increasingly partisan and hubristic successors, Driscoll was taught well. His defiance disguised as self-righteous indignation on behalf of the “brave men and women of the FBI” surely makes Andy McCabe blush with pride.

Norm Eisen Goes to Battle for Unnamed FBI Employees

As the same time the internal drama unfolded, a federal judge in DC expedited the litigation, holding a hearing just two days after the lawsuits on behalf of FBI employees were filed. Not only would disclosure of the estimated 5,000 names represent a breach of their privacy rights, the plaintiffs argued, but also violate their First and Fifth Amendment protections. Additionally, the identified employees could be subjected to “harassment” and other bad things. “Should this information fall into the wrong hands, Plaintiffs would be placed at immediate risk of serious personal harm and harm to their loved ones,” one lawsuit alleges.

One can almost hear the collective laughter of the J6 community. Wonder how much those same agents worried about “serious personal harm” when they pointed automatic weapons at the children and spouses of J6 subjects?

Both sides reached a temporary compromise on Thursday. Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, entered a consent order preventing the dissemination of the names to the public for now. The FBI personnel will pursue a preliminary injunction on the matter; a hearing is set for March 27.

This latest subterfuge represents another coverup related to the events of January 6, especially concerning the FBI. Where is the pipe bomber? Why did the former head of the Washington field office misrepresent to Congress the condition of cell phone data pursuant to the pipe bomb investigation? How many FBI informants and undercover officers were involved before and on January 6? Why didn’t the FBI open an investigation into the deleted text messages belonging to two dozen Secret Service employees related to their work before and on January 6?

Full Steam Ahead for Team Trump

But despite what appears to be a short-term win for the anon FBI employees, the president and his team are moving forward with plans to expose what has been happening at the DOJ and FBI for years. On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” to advance the goals of the president’s executive order. “The reconciliation and restoration of the Department of Justice's core values can only be accomplished through review and accountability,” Bondi wrote in a department-wide memo on February 5. “The Department has already started this process but much more work is required. No one who has acted with a righteous spirit and just intentions has any cause for concern about efforts to root out corruption and weaponization. On the other hand, the Department of Justice will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”

This includes, Bondi continued, “the pursuit of improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions relating to events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021…which diverted resources from combating violent and serious crime and thus, were pursued at the expense of the safety of residents of the District of Columbia.”

The president also is not messing around. He told a reporter during a press availability on Friday that “corrupt” FBI employees who worked on J6 and other matters “will be gone.”

While that is music to the ears of the thousands of victims, including the president, of the FBI’s politically oriented abuses, it will not be greeted the same way by the tone-deaf leaders and rank and file of the bureau.

They can hide but they can’t run—for long.