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DOJ directs FBI to fire 8 top officials, identify employees involved in Jan. 6, Hamas cases for review

DOJ directs FBI to fire 8 top officials, identify employees involved in Jan. 6, Hamas cases for review

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the acting FBI director Friday evening directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review, Fox News has learned.  Bove’s memo to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, which was obtained by Fox News, asserts the Department of Justice cannot trust the FBI employees to carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda. The subject of the memo is “Terminations.” JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FIRES MORE THAN A DOZEN KEY OFFICIALS ON FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH’S TEAM “This memorandum sets forth a series of directives, authorized by the Acting Attorney General, regarding personnel matters to be addressed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Bove wrote.  Bove, a former Trump defense attorney, directed Driscoll to fire eight specific FBI employees by Monday, Feb. 3, at 5:30 p.m.  “I do not believe that the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” Bove wrote in the memo.  Bove cited comments made by President Trump on his first day back in office, in which Trump accused the Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies of going after Biden’s political adversaries. “The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systemic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” Bove’s memo noted. “This includes the FBI.” ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR OPENING JACK SMITH ELECTOR CASE AGAINST PRESIDENT: WHISTLEBLOWER Bove said the FBI’s “prior leadership actively participated in what President Trump appropriately described as ‘a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years’ with respect to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “The weaponization of the FBI’s security clearance process is similarly troubling,” Bove continued. “So too are issues relating to the FBI’s reticence to address instructions and requests from, among other places, the Justice Department.”  Bove said the problems “are symptomatic of deficiencies in previous leadership that must now be addressed.” Bove wrote that he “deem[s] these terminations necessary, pursuant to President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order, entitled ‘Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government’ in order to continue the process of restoring a culture of integrity, credibility, accountability, and responsiveness to the leadership and directives of President Trump and the Justice Department.”  Beyond the terminations of the eight employees, Bove directed Driscoll to identify by noon Tuesday, Feb. 4, “all current and former FBI personnel assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions” relating to “the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021” and United States v. Haniyeh, a terrorism case against six Hamas leaders charged with planning and carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.  The defendants in that case include Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, high-level Hamas leaders believed to have been assassinated in 2024 by Israeli operatives. MAJOR FBI CHANGES KASH PATEL COULD MAKE ON DAY 1 IF CONFIRMED AS DIRECTOR Bove ordered that the lists of employees Driscoll should compile “should include relevant supervisory personnel in FBI regional offices and field divisions, as well as at FBI headquarters.”  “For each employee included in the list, provide the current title, office to which the person is assigned, role in the investigation or prosecution, and date of last activity relating to the investigation or prosecution,” Bove directed. “Upon timely receipt of the requested information, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General will commence a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”  Fox News also obtained the letter Driscoll sent to bureau employees Friday evening after receiving Bove’s memo. In it, Driscoll notified employees he was directed to fire the specific employees Bove identified “unless these employees have retired beforehand.”  “I have been personally in touch with each of these impacted employees,” Driscoll wrote.  As for the directive to compile a list of FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 and Hamas cases, Driscoll said that request “encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts.”  “I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane,” Driscoll wrote. “As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always. “We will be back in touch with more information as soon as we can. In the meantime, stay safe, and take care of each other.”  The FBI declined to comment on any personnel matters, including names, titles or numbers. The DOJ directive comes after Acting Attorney General James McHenry earlier this week fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump. Fox News Digital exclusively reported the action Monday.  A DOJ official Monday used similar language to that seen in Bove’s letter, telling Fox News Digital McHenry “does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”  The directive also comes a day after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that whistleblower emails were shared with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, revealing that a former FBI agent, Timothy Thibault, allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication.  Bove’s memo also comes a day after President Trump’s nominee to lead the bureau, Kash Patel, testified during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Trump and allies have maintained the law enforcement agency was weaponized against him and conservatives across the nation.  The House Judiciary Committee, for months, investigated the FBI for the

Supreme Court to consider an effort to establish the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school

Supreme Court to consider an effort to establish the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation’s first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices.  The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond.  In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School. SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF FAMILIES CAN OPT OUT OF READING LGBTQ BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval.  In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment’s provision on “establishment of religion” and the state constitution. “Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian. “However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state.” Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case “is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice.” SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LOOMING TIKTOK BAN “The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can’t create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations,” Campbell said. “So, we’re going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations.” Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state “more educational options.”  Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school’s approval, has previously said the school’s establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general “looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court.” “I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans,” Drummond said in a statement released in October. “This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law.” TENNESSEE AG OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SCOTUS CASE AFTER ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY’ REVERSAL IN LOWER COURT The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court.  In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities.  Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility. Campbell said given the court’s previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is “hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here.” “You can’t create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can’t be included,” Campbell said. “So, we’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April.  School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice.  Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.