A growing clash over the future of the FBI escalated sharply this week after a group of former top law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic officials accused the bureau’s current leadership of purging career agents for political reasons.
Calling themselves The Steady State, the group released a public letter condemning FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino for the abrupt firings of several senior agents, including former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, veteran Special Agent Walter Giardina, and Michael Feinberg.
The letter charges that the dismissals are part of a broader effort to dismantle the FBI’s independence and reshape it into “a personal enforcement arm of a political figure.”
“This is not about reform. It is about control,” the letter warns. “The aim, it seems, is to transform the FBI from a respected, constitutionally grounded investigative service into a personal enforcement arm of a political figure… These regimes do not end well.”
The firings came late last week, with orders that the agents clear out by Friday. Driscoll had served as acting director before Patel’s confirmation, Giardina was involved in the investigation of Trump adviser Peter Navarro, and Steve Jensen—also reportedly removed—oversaw the Washington Field Office and played a central role in the January 6 investigations.
A dismissal letter from Patel to Giardina, shared online by MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian, accused him of “poor judgment and a lack of impartiality… leading to the political weaponization of the government.”
Former FBI agent Phil Kennedy called the wave of terminations a “Bureau bloodbath,” alleging it specifically targeted “anti-Trump” personnel tied to high-profile probes, including Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case.
These moves come months after the bureau circulated a controversial questionnaire to thousands of agents asking whether they played any role in the January 6 investigation—a survey critics feared could be used to build a list for retaliation. The tension only deepened when Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the FBI to compile exactly such a list in February.
The Steady State’s letter frames the firings as a historic moment that could define the bureau’s trajectory. “The nation is watching, and will be inspired by the FBI,” they wrote. “And history will remember.”
