FBI employees ordered to reveal their role in investigation into Capitol riot case
The responses to the questionnaire need to be provided today (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
On Sunday, FBI employees were instructed to respond to a questionnaire regarding any work they may have carried out in criminal cases related to the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. This has raised concerns about a new wave of dismissals within the law enforcement agency, reports Reuters.
The list of questions in the memo, which was reviewed by the media, instructs FBI employees to state their positions, describe the role they played in the investigation of the January 6th riots, which were organized by current President Donald Trump, and clarify whether they assisted in overseeing such investigations.
"I know myself and others receiving this questionnaire have a lot of questions and concerns, which I am working hard to get answers to," wrote Chad Yarbrough, assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters, in an email.
He informed staff that responses were required by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (10:00 p.m. Kyiv time). The FBI representative declined to comment on the questionnaire.
Democrats and other critics have stated that Trump's team is conducting a purge within the FBI and the Department of Justice of employees who played a role in the criminal cases against the current US president and the participants in the January 6th riots.
On the first day of his return to the presidency, January 20, 2025, Trump commuted the sentences of 14 individuals convicted in the Capitol riot. Additionally, he pardoned others, including those who carried out violent attacks on law enforcement officers.
A few days earlier, on Friday, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove demanded that the FBI provide him by noon on Tuesday, Eastern Time, with a list of all employees who worked on the January 6th cases, as well as a list of those who worked on the criminal case brought last year against leaders of the Hamas militant group in connection with the war in Gaza.
Bove also dismissed eight FBI employees from the agency's headquarters and removed the heads of the field offices in Miami and Washington.
Last week, Bove dismissed more than a dozen career prosecutors from the Department of Justice who had worked on two now-closed criminal cases brought by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith against Trump. One of the cases was related to actions taken to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while the other involved classified government documents.
