Ex-FBI agents say Grassley played improper role in their firings

Source: The Hill

05/07/26 6:00 AM ET


Several former FBI agents are arguing Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) played a significant role in their firings, removals that followed his release of a number of unredacted materials about the criminal investigation into President Trump. That assertion was made in two separate lawsuits against the FBI that don’t name Grassley as a defendant but point to his actions as a factor precipitating the firing of agents who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The suits allege the agents were wrongfully terminated based solely on their assignment to Smith’s team — work that one of the suits argues the FBI now sees as “somehow hostile partisan acts.” The litigation also raises questions about the Senate Judiciary Committee’s sprawling investigation into Smith’s Arctic Frost probe, as well as Grassley’s role in a conservative ecosystem focused on addressing what Republicans have branded as “rot” at the FBI.

Grassley’s disclosures include the unredacted names of agents, something their attorney argues sparks not only online vitriol but backlash from the bureau as it culls employees. “It is appalling to me that lawmakers would so carelessly mischaracterize these unredacted disclosures, knowing that the direct result of their actions is to cause an ill-informed online mob to go after honest, hardworking federal law enforcement officers,” said Margaret Donovan, a former federal prosecutor now representing two agents suing the FBI.

“The best-case scenario is that Grassley is so far past his prime, he is clueless as to what he’s doing. The worst-case scenario is that Grassley and others are intentionally trying to harm federal agents who dared to investigate criminal activity, which happened to implicate a political ally,” she added, nodding to Grassley’s status as the oldest sitting senator at age 92.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5866256-trump-probe-grassley-documents/