A former FBI supervisor says the Trump administration pushed the bureau to investigate peaceful Los Angeles protesters, and that she was told one probe would go forward despite concerns over its lawfulness.
Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, filed the complaint with Senate Judiciary Committee leaders alleging that the federal response to anti-ICE protests early last year violated protesters' First Amendment rights and FBI policy, and she asked Congress and the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate, reported NBC News.
According to the complaint, Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, told the head of the Los Angeles office to open an investigation into activity outside the city's federal building, but Fields said she considered that activity protected speech.
Fields also alleges that the White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate protesters who used megaphones to warn residents about immigration operations, tell them their legal rights and urge them not to open their doors without a signed judicial warrant. FBI agents had already reviewed that conduct and declined to open a case, she says.
According to her attorneys' letter, Trump had watched a video of the protesters with megaphones, and a personwhose name is redacted in the complaint told Fields that an investigation would be opened because “the President wants this investigation."
Fields alleged that the FBI’s Los Angeles office had pulled agents off active cartel cases to generate what a supervisor described as “optics” designed to “make a show for the president.”
A senior FBI official who oversaw privacy and civil liberties expressed dismay about the investigation and later told Fields she planned to resign, the complaint says. Fields resigned too, after learning she would be removed from leading three programs, and she believes that move was retaliation.
A Justice Department spokesperson called the complaint politically motivated and said violence isn't protected by the First Amendment, though the complaint concerns nonviolent protests. "The DOJ and FBI have a responsibility to investigate any potential violations of federal law," the spokesperson said.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) said the disclosure is another example of Trump weaponizing the Justice Department.
"How many more of these investigations have been opened up because of political pressure coming from the White House, despite the questions and concerns about legality and constitutionality?" Padilla told NBC News.
In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Patel, Padilla wrote that the allegations "raise grave concerns about the rule of law under your leadership" and about "the testimony that you provided under oath to Congress."
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.