The Standing

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

    Deputy AG Blanche boasts every DOJ and FBI employee who investigated Trump is gone

    At a CPAC fireside chat on March 26, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declared that every Justice Department and FBI employee who worked on the criminal investigations into President Trump had been fired, resigned, or taken early retirement — "not a single man or woman" remained — putting the DOJ figure at "over 200." His public confirmation marked the completion of a systematic purge of the career personnel who had investigated the president, with termination letters citing employees' prosecution work as the reason they could not be "trusted."

    Jurisdiction
    federal
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Abuses documented

    Actors

    • Todd Blanche
    • U.S. Department of Justice
    • Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Speaking during a fireside chat at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on March 26, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that "there is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions" of President Trump. Blanche said the affected employees had been fired, had resigned, or had taken early retirement, and put the number who left the Justice Department at "over 200." CNN reported that it could not independently verify that figure.

    The departures followed the gutting of offices whose work touched the two prosecutions brought by former special counsel Jack Smith — one over the retention of classified records, the other over efforts to overturn the 2020 election — both dropped before Trump returned to office. In some cases, employees received termination letters stating they could not be "trusted" to "faithfully" implement the president's agenda because of their involvement in his prosecutions. FBI Director Kash Patel separately removed agents tied to the same investigations.

    Blanche's remarks are an aggregate milestone distinct from the individual personnel actions already in the archive: they are a senior official's on-the-record confirmation that the purge of investigators was both deliberate and complete. The statement later became central evidence in a retaliatory-firing lawsuit filed by former FBI agents at the end of March 2026.

    Why we recorded this

    A justice system serves the public only when prosecutors and agents can investigate the powerful without fear of reprisal. Here a senior Justice Department official publicly celebrated the removal of every career employee who investigated the president — and termination letters made the reason explicit: their work on those cases. Recording this preserves an on-the-record admission that federal law enforcement personnel were purged for doing their jobs, a use of government power to punish accountability rather than wrongdoing.

    Sources

    1. All the Justice and FBI employees who investigated Trump have left, deputy attorney general boasts — CNN primary accessed June 7, 2026
    2. Blanche boasts of having 'cleaned house' at DOJ, FBI following Trump prosecutions — The Hill secondary accessed June 7, 2026
    3. FBI agents who investigated Trump file lawsuit alleging retaliatory firing — Al Jazeera secondary accessed June 7, 2026

    See also