The Trump administration agreed Friday not to publicly release the names of FBI agents who played a role in investigations tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack without providing two days’ notice.
Sixteen FBI agents who worked on the probes sued the government soon after the agency’s Tuesday deadline to turn over responses to a survey about employees’ work on the more than 1,500 cases stemming from the riot. They claimed the review laid the groundwork for retaliation following President Trump’s vows for retribution against his perceived political enemies.
“Once this happens, if this happens, the damage is irreparable,” Margaret Donovan, an attorney for the FBI agents, said during a hearing Thursday.
As part of the agreement, the Justice Department said that the government would not disseminate the list of names to the public “directly or indirectly” pending the outcome of the lawsuits without giving two days’ notice, at which point attorneys for the FBI agents could argue for a temporary block on its ability to do so.
The deal was not easily reached.
Justice Department lawyers on Thursday insisted that the DOJ itself had not authorized the public release of the names and had no plan to, nor had it given a formal go-ahead to share the list of names with other government entities.
But when asked to represent that other government entities — like the White House or the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — would not publicly share the names if they gained access, the government lawyers demurred.
“I’m not in a position to make representations,” said DOJ lawyer Jeremy Simon.
“Why?” pressed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb. “You’re the attorney for the U.S. government.”
The agreement, which was approved by Cobb Friday afternoon, would not stop the Justice Department from disseminating the list to other government entities, though it appears those entities would also be bound not to publicly release the names without notice.
The FBI agents will file their motions for a preliminary injunction by Feb. 24 and the government will file its opposition by March 14. A hearing on the preliminary injunction was set for March 27.
Lawyers for the FBI agents sought to bar any government entity from releasing the names, noting that Trump and acolytes like billionaire Elon Musk, who spearheads DOGE, had already publicly shunned government employees in recent weeks.
They also said that pardoned Jan. 6 defendants have expressed excitement on social media about the release of the FBI agents’ names, suggesting “horrendous” risk would follow the publication of the agents’ information.
“Do we really want to wait until one person gets injured when someone shows up at their house? Is that the way we really want to go?” said Mark Zaid, another attorney for the agents.
The government said any such risk is “entirely speculative.” Simon noted that the Justice Department officials collecting agents’ information were following the president’s executive order to weed out “weaponization” in the federal government.
“I understand they don’t agree with that executive order, but that is not something they’ve contended is unlawful,” Simon said.
FBI agents were directed to fill out a 13-question survey about their roles in the Capitol riot cases by Monday, which asked them to define their roles in the Jan. 6 cases, asking whether they conducted surveillance, collected evidence, arrested individuals or testified in court. That information was due to be turned over to DOJ by Tuesday at noon.
In an apparent act of defiance, acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll returned the survey with only agents’ unique identifier codes, instead of their names.
Zaid said that decision marked the “last roadblock” in place to protect the employees’ physical safety and reputations. DOJ leadership called the move “insubordination” in an email to all FBI agents.
In court filings Friday, the parties notified the court that the FBI had given DOJ a record pairing the unique identifiers with corresponding names. However, the terms of the agreement encompass that list, as well.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a former personal attorney for President Trump, said Wednesday that DOJ would not target FBI employees who “simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner” on Jan. 6 cases.
The lawsuits followed a purge of dozens of DOJ and FBI officials, including the five highest career positions at the FBI, agents who worked on Trump’s two criminal cases and approximately two dozen prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
