Two separate groups of FBI agents and employees have filed federal lawsuits to try to block the Justice Department from retaliating against them because they worked on cases about the Capitol riot, reports the New York Times. Both suits argue it would be unlawful to take action against them over their work on the politically sensitive cases. They stem from a Justice Department directive to the FBI to hand over the names of agents who worked on investigations tied to the Jan. 6 unrest or President Trump.
The legal action, however, comes too late to prevent the compiling of the list: The FBI handed it over Tuesday, complying with a Justice Department deadline, reports CNN. The list contains the names of more than 5,000 agents and employees, about 10% of the total FBI workforce. The lawsuits, both of which were filed anonymously, seek to stop the Trump administration from making the list public or otherwise using it to penalize people.
"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," one of the lawsuits alleges. It also says making the list public puts employees "and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons," per the Washington Post. (More Justice Department stories.)
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