The Justice Department and a group of FBI agents reached an agreement in federal court Friday over the dissemination of information about FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigation.
According to the text of the deal, the Trump administration cannot release information about the FBI agents who investigated the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot without giving plaintiffs at least two days’ notice so that the matter can be considered again in federal court.
It does not, however, place such a time limit on the dissemination of agents’ identities to other government agencies or the White House.
The deal resolves, at least for now, a dispute over the release of information that agents said they feared could be used for retaliation or leaked to the public.
The agreement comes after active FBI agents and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association, a voluntary agents’ group, sued the Justice Department earlier this week seeking to block the release of any identifying information about FBI agents involved in the January 6 investigations.
The two parties tussled for hours in court on Thursday in front of U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who questioned both parties at length on the nature of DOJ’s questionnaire, the potential for disclosures or retaliation and how the Justice Department intends to use information divulged in the questionnaires.
The agreement defers any immediate relief for plaintiffs, pushing to March 27 their hearing for a preliminary injunction.
Cobb previously granted the two parties a brief administrative stay on Thursday evening, saying that if the information was released she believed it ‘would put FBI agents in immediate danger.’
The agreement comes just days after FBI leadership said it had provided the Justice Department with a list of agents who worked on Jan. 6 investigations and criminal cases, in keeping with an earlier deadline set by U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
‘Plaintiffs assert that the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action,’ lawyers for the FBI agents said, adding that they ‘reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.’
Lawyers for the agents argued that any effort to review or discriminate against agents involved in the investigation would be ‘unlawful and retaliatory,’ and a violation of civil service protections under federal law.
They also cited ‘profound concern’ that the list of thousands of FBI agents involved would be leaked to the public, threatening their safety.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the Justice Department stressed that their intent in issuing the questionnaire was to conduct an ‘internal review’ of activities in the Jan. 6 probe, not to punish individuals for carrying out orders.
Bove also sought to emphasize this message in an all-staff email to FBI personnel earlier this week. In the email, Bove stressed that the questionnaire was not intended to be a first step to mass layoffs, and stressed it was simply intended for review.