Several top FBI executives promoted by former Director Christopher Wray were told Thursday to resign or retire, and that they will be demoted or reassigned if they don’t leave, according to one current and three former bureau officials.
The purge of senior officials includes about a half dozen “executive assistant directors,” who are some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations. They are career civil servants, meaning they can’t be fired without cause.
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One current FBI official told NBC News that this move would be “hugely disruptive,” while a former official who is talking to people at the FBI said there’s a lot of anger because these are not considered political figures in any way.
The FBI declined to comment on the personnel moves, which were first reported by CNN.
Wray, who was appointed to his 10-year post by President Donald Trump in 2017, resigned at the end of the Biden administration.
The moves at the FBI come amid a wave of terminations in the first 10 days of the Trump administration.
The president terminated 18 inspectors general last week, including watchdogs for the State Department, Pentagon, Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.
Trump defended the firings saying, “Some were unfair or were not doing the job.”
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The Trump administration has also fired career attorneys at the Justice Department who were involved in prosecuting him, raising alarms over the president making good on threats of retribution against those who have challenged his conduct.
Trump has picked Kash Patel to lead the FBI in his second term. Patel said during a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday that if he is confirmed the FBI won’t take retributive action.
