The FBI has provided the Justice Department with names of employees who worked on January 6-related cases after a new demand from the acting deputy attorney general, capping a weeklong back-and-forth between bureau leadership – who had sought to protect agent and staff identities – and the department.
The FBI complied by providing the names through a classified system to protect employees from being publicly identified, acting Director Brian Driscoll told employees in an email Thursday.
“I want to be clear that as of now we do not have information indicating the Department of Justice intends to disseminate these lists publicly, and they are fully aware of the risks we believe are inherent in doing so,” Driscoll wrote in the email.
“We will let you know immediately if we learn the Department’s intentions regarding these lists changes,” he said.
The Justice Department’s Thursday demand comes after the bureau earlier this week withheld the names of thousands of employees and instead relayed information based only on employee ID numbers, according to an email obtained by CNN.
Over the past several days, FBI and Justice Department leadership have gone back-and-forth over how to protect the information gathered as part of a review of January 6-related investigations, including the one into President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the FBI handed over information on more than 5,000 employees, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations – but not their names.
In memos, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said that the information was not gathered to retaliate against agents who worked on the investigations, writing that “the only individuals who should be concerned about the process initiated by my January 31, 2025, memo are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from Department leadership, or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the FBI.”
Bove on Wednesday accused FBI leadership of “insubordination” by refusing to identify a “core team” of bureau employees who worked on the investigations. While he did not rule out that some could face consequences — including termination or other penalties — it marked the first time the department indicated the agents would not be fired en masse.
Still, several FBI employees, along with the agency’s union, sued the Justice Department to cover their collection of information, and asked a judge to make sure their names are not released outside of DOJ. In the lawsuits, the employees said they feared for their safety should their identities be made public.
Driscoll said in his email Thursday that FBI leadership “reiterated once again our concerns for the safety of our personnel, and the risks posed to you and your families should these lists become public.”
The Justice Department pushed back on those concerns during a court hearing earlier in the day. DOJ attorney Jeremy Simon told a judge that “there has not been an official disclosure outside the department,” while also acknowledging that other government officials could have gotten access to the list through “unofficial” means.
