FBI agents who worked on cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump — have filed a class action lawsuit to block Justice Department leadership from assembling lists of agents they say will be used as part of a retaliation campaign.
The agents, who brought the federal suit anonymously, included screenshots of a three-page survey they say DOJ leadership intends to use to identify thousands of agents who worked on the politically sensitive cases. According to the lawsuit, the agents are fearful that the Trump-led Justice Department will disseminate the lists publicly or use them to exact punishment against employees deemed disloyal.
“Plaintiffs legitimately fear that the information being compiled will be accessed by persons who are not authorized to have access to it,” they argue. “Plaintiffs further assert that even if they are not targeted for termination, they may face other retaliatory acts such as demotion, denial of job opportunities or denial of promotions in the future.”
The suit was filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday around the same time as a deadline the Justice Department set for the FBI to identify all its personnel who worked on Jan. 6-related cases or investigations. It’s unclear what DOJ officials plan to do with the names, but some prosecutors and FBI leaders deemed untrustworthy by Trump appointees have already been fired.
The lawsuit, which claims violations of First Amendment rights and of the federal Privacy Act, asks to bar the Justice Department from aggregating and disseminating the identities of FBI agents and employees that could tie them to the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.