Trump Admin Fires FBI Official
Former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, a man whose career until now had been defined by the slow, deliberate cadence of Bureau work, found himself abruptly cut loose on Friday — one of three high-ranking officials shown the door without a public explanation. The Bureau’s leadership has given no formal rationale, but the context swirling around these exits is already drawing a thick cloud of political speculation.
At the center of that speculation is Driscoll’s reported clash with then–Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove during the waning days of the Trump administration. According to MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian, citing an anonymous source “directly familiar” with the matter, Bove instructed Driscoll to assemble a complete roster of all agents — past and present — who had worked January 6th–related cases. Driscoll allegedly refused, and the list was never compiled. In Dilanian’s account, that refusal may have been the thread that unraveled his tenure.
Brian Driscoll, the former acting FBI director who refused to carry out Trump administration plans for mass firing of J6 agents, is being forced out of the bureau, according to a source directly familiar.
— Ken Dilanian (@DilanianMSNBC) August 7, 2025
Driscoll’s own farewell note to colleagues was measured, even gracious. “Tomorrow will be my last day in the FBI. I understand that you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I currently have no answers.
No cause has been articulated at this time. Please know that it has been the honor of my life to serve alongside each of you … I regret nothing.” It was the sort of message that reads both as a valediction and as a quiet refusal to apologize.
He was not alone in his departure. Walter Giardina, connected to the investigation into former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, and Steve Jensen, who led the Washington Field Office in the thick of the January 6th probes, were also dismissed.
The trio’s simultaneous exit is what has prompted terms like “purge” in corners of the press and on social media, while defenders of the Bureau’s authority note that the director has broad discretion in staffing — and that insubordination, if substantiated, can justify termination.
Drizz sent a message to colleagues:
“Last night I was informed that tomorrow will be my last day in the FBI. I understand that you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I currently have no answers. No cause has been articulated at this time.
Please know that it… https://t.co/84tjMOADLy— Ken Dilanian (@DilanianMSNBC) August 7, 2025
What remains unspoken but undeniable is the significance of timing. These were not faceless bureaucrats shuffled out in anonymity; they were figures embedded in some of the most politically charged investigations of recent years.