New book reveals Trump ally Stephen Miller is at the center of a purge of FBI agents | Donald Trump
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind the purge of FBI agents investigating Donald Trump, a new book has revealed.
Miller trampled on the independence of the FBI by demanding a firing that would satisfy the US president’s desire for revenge, journalists Carol Leunig and Aaron Davis wrote in their article. injustice: How politics and fear overcame the US Department of Justice.
“Stephen Miller is breathing down my neck,” Emile Boff, then Trump’s chief enforcer at the Justice Department, confided to FBI leaders, according to the book, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian.
After his first term in the White House, Trump faced federal criminal investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. His election victory last year effectively ended the prosecutions and left him ready for revenge.
In the second week of his second presidency, he had already directed the dismissal of top Justice Department leaders, the authors write, and “his White House and Justice Department aides had put significant pressure on the FBI.”
Bove, the lawyer who defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases and was on his legal team during his tenure New York hush money trialwas now Deputy Attorney General (later appointed as a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals).
Boff told acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and his deputy, Robert Kissane, that he wanted a list of agents from the Washington Field Office who participated in investigations into the January 6, 2021 insurrection and the secret documents case.
“We need to do an audit of the Department of Justice,” Poff told them, and said it was possible we might need to fire some agents.
Driscoll resisted, saying he did not want to provide such a list and did not understand why the Justice Department needed to review it, noting that the FBI had its own internal mechanisms for dealing with potential misconduct.
But Miller, described as the most powerful unelected person in America, had other ideas. “On the evening of Tuesday, January 28, Bove received several calls from Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who took on the role of avenging the president and delivering frightening new headlines to please Trump and his supporters,” Leunig and Davis write.
“Miller said he talked to him [FBI director nominee Kash] Patel, who was eager to see more “targeted” FBI officials removed from their jobs, matched how quickly the Justice Department was firing prosecutors. Patel basically wanted the FBI’s expulsions to happen faster. Miller had pressured Pugh to get it done, saying he agreed, according to later reports from Pugh’s account.
The next morning, Bove informed Driscoll and Keysani of Patel’s desire and ordered Miller to fire key FBI personnel who had authorized the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago documents investigations. Driscoll and Keysani then told executive assistants that mass firings were on the way.
“For most people, it felt like the world was spinning,” the authors wrote. “They were professional agents, not political lackeys of one administration or another… They never mentioned their political views at work, but this was a Republican-leaning group. One manager thought to himself: ‘Oh hell, many of us voted for Trump.’
On January 30, after Patel said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he was not aware of any discussions about politically motivated FBI firings, Poff again pushed Driscoll and Kissane to provide a list of names of agents involved in the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.
The book goes on to deny Driscoll again, citing the office’s long-standing practice of protecting clients’ anonymity. “I can’t believe you’re fighting me,” Poof said, looking insulted.
“This is people’s profession, and they haven’t done anything wrong,” Driscoll said.
“Buff at one point asked for a much more limited group: What if they started with the names of every FBI agent who was part of the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago bedroom?
“I just need a list to cross,” Poof said, frustration rising in his voice. “I just need five or six names because Stephen Miller is after me.”
Leoniga former Washington Post correspondent who is now a senior investigative reporter at MSNBC, and Davisan investigative reporter at The Washington Post, noted: “Boff was acting and speaking like a man under great pressure to deliver some scalps to the White House. But Driscoll wouldn’t budge. And the increasingly exasperated Boff wasn’t giving in either.”
On January 31, Bove sent Driscoll a “Termination” memo demanding that seven specific leaders be fired and that a list of all agents and supervisors involved in the January 6 investigation be handed over by Tuesday, February 4.
The assistant executive directors left over the weekend, bringing with them 150 years of FBI experience. “When Bove’s deadline arrived at noon on Tuesday, Driscoll arranged for a list of agents to be sent to him — but instead of names, he provided employee ID numbers. Bove was furious. That same day, the FBI Agents Association filed suit to stop releasing the agents’ names.
“‘this It feels like resistance“Buff said.
“Because it is,” Driscoll replied.