By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The acting head of the FBI, following days of resistance, turned over to the Justice Department a list of names of FBI employees who worked on investigations related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a message seen by Reuters.
Emil Bove, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who now holds a senior role at the Justice Department, had demanded the information from the FBI as part of what he called a review of misconduct surrounding the probes, which led to nearly 1,600 criminal cases against Trump supporters.
FBI agents have sued to block the public release of those names, with a court hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon.
The dispute over the list has became a flashpoint as the FBI seeks to safeguard its independence during a push by the Trump administration to remove or sideline officials who have worked on investigations condemned by Trump.
Brian Driscoll, the acting FBI director, had resisted a request for the names, prompting Bove to accuse him of insubordination. A list the FBI turned over earlier this week identified agents only by their employee identification numbers, sources told Reuters.
The Justice Department also requested a list of agents involved in a U.S. criminal case against leaders of the Hamas militant group.
Driscoll told FBI employees that the latest list, which includes agents’ names, was turned over using a classified system and identified as “law enforcement sensitive” to protect employees’ safety, according to the email seen by Reuters.
The Justice Department, responding to the agents’ lawsuits, has said it has no immediate plans to publicly name the employees included on the list. Bove has said agents who only followed orders on investigations would not be disciplined.
The department and lawyers for the FBI agents unsuccessfully sought to reach a temporary deal on Thursday, but hit a snag over whether the agreement would also bind the effort by the White House and billionaire Elon Musk to overhaul the federal government.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Andy Sullivan and Rod Nickel)
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