By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that they fear could be a precursor to mass firings.
The class-action complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, seeks an immediate halt to the Justice Development’s plans to compile a list of investigators who participated in probes of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol as well as Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The lawsuit notes that Trump on the campaign trail “repeatedly stated that he would personify ‘the vengeance’ or ‘the retribution,’ for those whom he called ‘political hostages,’ for their actions during the Jan. 6 attack.”
The agents contend “the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance and by Donald Trump and his agents.”
The complaint also cites the Justice Department’s firing last week of prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team as proof that the effort to compile the list is rooted in a desire for retribution.
“Donald Trump has made repeated public pronouncements of his intent to exact revenge upon persons he perceives to be disloyal to him by simply executing their duties in investigating acts incited by him and persons loyal to him,” the complaint says. “Whatever the Trump administration believes about Plaintiffs’ political affiliation, it clearly believes that persons who were involved in the investigation and prosecution of Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases are insufficiently politically affiliated with Donald Trump to be entitled to retain their employment.”
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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