Acting DAG Bove ordered firing of Jan. 6 prosecutors and review of thousands of FBI agents who worked Capitol riot cases

On January 31, 2025, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo with the subject line "Termination," directing Acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Edward Martin to immediately fire approximately 20–40 line prosecutors who had worked January 6 Capitol riot cases and had been converted from temporary to permanent positions following Trump's November 2024 election win. Bove labeled the career moves "subversive personnel actions" and cited Trump's executive order on government "weaponization" as justification. In a parallel memo, Acting Attorney General James McHenry directed Martin to terminate the prosecutors because they had "hindered" DOJ's ability to "faithfully implement the agenda that the American people elected President Trump to execute."

Bove also ordered FBI Acting Director Brian Driscoll to compile a list of every current and former FBI employee assigned "at any time" to the January 6 investigation — a universe Driscoll acknowledged could span thousands of agents — for review to determine whether "additional personnel actions" were warranted. Eight senior FBI executive assistant directors overseeing criminal, national security, and cyber divisions were ordered fired by February 3. The memo came three days after Trump pardoned all January 6 defendants on his first day in office.

By February 4, the FBI had submitted identifying information on more than 5,000 employees who had worked on January 6 cases to DOJ, though the submission withheld employee names. Lawyers for targeted agents and prosecutors filed legal challenges, arguing the dismissals violated due process. The chief judge of the D.C. federal trial court granted requests from multiple public employees to proceed under pseudonyms, warning that disclosure of agents' identities would expose them to "immediate risk of doxing, swatting, harassment, or possibly worse."

Updates

June 2025 — AG Bondi fired three additional tenured Jan. 6 prosecutors [5]

The pattern of Jan. 6–related purges continued under incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi. DOJ fired three additional career prosecutors who had worked January 6 cases and were past their probationary period — the first terminations of tenured career prosecutors for their assignment to January 6 cases.