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FBI purge may affect more law enforcement than previously thought: reporter
January 31, 2025 5:39PM ET
An FBI vehicle (Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump is purging the FBI, but the number of law enforcement agents who will be fired could be more extensive than initially thought.
NBC News reporter Ryan Reilly said the goal of the Trump team is to purge any FBI agent who had their hands on anything involving Jan. 6. Given the sheer number of defendants, a full three-fourths of the FBI worked on those cases, which would mean just 25% of the FBI staff would be left to handle federal law enforcement investigations.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Friday, Reilly said one former official explained that a large number of people were involved in working on those cases, even if they were just low-level misdemeanor cases.
"The more common one was those assault on a federal officer, charges that were really common," said Reilly. Trump pardoned those charges upon entering office.
"And even people who were skeptical of the Justice Department's handling of those overall were behind those cases. And I think most of the American public would be, too. When you have a cop getting beat by a rioter, that's something that most people say that should be prosecuted by the federal government."
The details of the cases and what agents did will matter, he continued.
"Ryan Reilly, I want to make sure I got this down as you said: three-fourths of the Bureau touched these cases in one way or another?" Wallace asked.
Reilly confirmed the details, saying it was a rough estimate from a former official.
Trump and Republicans spent most of the past two election cycles claiming Democrats want to "defund the police" and accusing them of refusing to "back the blue."
One non-profit group has emerged to help Justice Department employees who are being fired or could be left working for Trump and questioning their ethical options. The group wants to replicate its work in all federal agencies impacted by Trump's purge.
See the discussion in the clip below or at the link here.
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