By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI launched a wide-ranging round of staff cuts on Friday as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to swiftly shake up the leading U.S. law enforcement agency, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
At least five top FBI officials in major U.S. cities – Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans and Las Vegas – were ordered to resign or be fired, one of the sources told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another source said that a sixth senior FBI official, in Los Angeles, was given a similar order.
Trump has vowed to overhaul the U.S. Justice Department, which includes the FBI, after it brought two criminal cases against him during his four years out of power for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his retention of classified documents after leaving office.
In his first day back in the White House on Jan. 20, Trump granted clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
The staff cuts are hitting career FBI officials in nonpartisan roles who typically remain in their posts from administration to administration. The bureau has a history of political independence and is responsible for highly sensitive investigations involving counterterrorism, public corruption and cybersecurity.
FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment on the moves.
The Justice Department on Thursday said it was investigating the release by an upstate New York sheriff’s office of an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally, in what appears to be its first use of a new policyto criminally investigate state and local officials who do not comply with Trump’s directives.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba O’Brien)
