Our investigations reveal the shocking details of an unprecedented wave of purges that is shaking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to its very foundations. What is happening behind closed doors in Washington surpasses the darkest fears: the systematic dismantling of one of the most important law enforcement agencies in the Western world.
Brian Driscoll stands on his last day in the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The man who once commanded the legendary Hostage Rescue Team, who risked his life in international counterterrorism operations, is being escorted out of the building like a traitor. “I understand that you will have many questions why - to which I have no answers,” he wrote in his farewell message to colleagues. “No cause has been articulated at this time.”
The irony is bitter: Driscoll, who served as Acting Director leading the FBI through the turbulent weeks following Trump’s inauguration, is not being punished for failure. His offense? He refused to hand over the names of more than 5,000 FBI agents who were involved in the investigations into January 6. In the halls of the FBI, a message circulated after his resistance that summed up his stance: “Bottom line — DOJ came over and wanted to fire a bunch of J6 agents. Driscoll is an absolute stallion. Held the line and told the WH proxy, DOJ, to fuck off.”


What Kash Patel and Dan Bongino - two men who built their careers on conspiracy theories and right-wing podcasts - are now doing to the FBI defies all description. Bongino, who in 2022 boasted on his podcast, “The FBI is a completely corrupt organization” and called the Bureau “muscle for the Democratic Party,” now sits as Deputy Director with his hands on the levers of power. “The only thing that will stop the FBI from doing what they’re doing now,” he preached at the time, “is inflicting real material losses. Fire everyone involved in this stuff. Everyone - no excuses. Disband the unit. It’s the only way at this point.”

The metamorphosis is grotesque: the same Bongino who in 2023 shouted “What the hell are they hiding about Jeffrey Epstein?” had to sheepishly admit in 2025: “I reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself.” His former followers bombarded him with angry messages - trapped in the conspiracy theories he himself had fueled for years. Tommy Vietor, former Obama advisor, aptly remarked: “It’s fascinating to watch Patel and Bongino go from feeding the base with lies and conspiracies to holding positions of actual responsibility and occasionally having to tell the truth.” Senator Mark Warner put the gravity of the situation plainly: “I am deeply concerned by press reports that more experienced FBI leaders have been pushed out of their roles by Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. From day one, this administration has shown it is willing to undermine the integrity of our federal agencies in the service of political loyalty. Virginians and all Americans deserve a Federal Bureau of Investigation that follows the facts and upholds the law without fear or favor, not one that is reshaped to serve the political whims of the President or his allies.”

Our investigations reveal the true scope of the purges: dozens of Special Agents in Charge were given a choice - resignation, reassignment, or humiliation. Steven Jensen, who led the powerful Washington Field Office, received his termination without any justification. “I intend to face this challenge as I have faced every other in this organization, with professionalism, integrity, and dignity,” he wrote in his farewell message. His offense? He had led the Domestic Terrorism Section after January 6, 2021 - at a time when the FBI still called the Capitol attack what it was: an act of domestic terrorism. The methods of the new leadership are as perfidious as they are effective: Michael Feinberg was demoted because he was friends with Peter Strzok - an agent who was fired in 2018 for critical text messages about Trump. Agents who knelt during the George Floyd protests in 2020 - a gesture of human solidarity - were removed from their positions years later because of it. The message is unmistakable: any form of humanity, any gesture of empathy is seen as weakness and punished. Polygraph tests are used as weapons to intimidate longtime agents. A climate of fear permeates the agency.
Emil Bove, now appointed for life as a federal judge, acted as the legal enforcer of this campaign. He accused FBI leadership of “insubordination” for refusing to “identify the core team” responsible for the January 6 investigations. His demand for name lists - allegedly to conduct a “review” under Trump’s Executive Order on “weaponization” - eerily recalls the darkest chapters of authoritarian regimes. “Only those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied department leadership instructions or exercised their discretion in the weaponization of the FBI,” should be concerned, Bove wrote. But who defines what is “partisan”? Who decides what “weaponization” means? The drama peaked when Driscoll refused to hand over the demanded names. A former FBI official who knows Driscoll well confirmed to us: “He pushed back hard.” When the pressure became unbearable, Driscoll eventually informed his staff that he had transmitted the names - but through a classified system to protect their identities. He urgently warned his people to scrub their digital footprints, out of concern for their safety.


The fear among agents is palpable. One FBI agent wrote in an internally circulated message: “I was tasked with investigating a potential crime. Like every previous case I’ve investigated, it met every legal standard of justification and procedure. Without bias, I upheld my oath to this country and the Constitution and gathered the facts. I gathered the facts in a manner that was not meant to prove innocence or guilt, but to arrive at a resolution.” Now these agents fear for their careers, their safety, their future. “We all feel defeated,” one agent confessed to the media. The dispute over the Epstein files reveals the full absurdity of the new FBI leadership. Bongino, who for years spread conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death and asked on his podcast “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?” got into a heated conflict with Attorney General Pam Bondi. After a tense meeting at the White House, which also included Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Bongino threatened to resign. “Bongino is furious,” confirmed a person who spoke with the Deputy FBI Director. “This ruined his career. He’s threatening to quit and to destroy Pam if she’s not fired.”
The irony could not be more bitter: the very men who labeled the FBI as “weaponized” are now turning it into a political weapon themselves. Bongino had preached on his podcast that the FBI had become a “police state,” “no different from things you see in Cuba, North Korea.” He even warned that Americans might be subjected to “massive systemic violence” by the government. Now he is part of the very system he once vehemently vilified. Trump himself bluntly declared: “I’m going to fire some of them,” and claimed without any evidence, “we had some corrupt agents, and those people are gone or they will be gone, and it will happen quickly and very surgically.” No evidence of misconduct by FBI agents involved in the January 6 cases has ever been made public. The overwhelming majority of those cases resulted in convictions - before Trump pardoned them all on his first day in office.
What is happening here is nothing less than the systematic destruction of the rule of law. The transformation of the FBI from an independent law enforcement agency into an instrument of political revenge is taking place before our eyes. When officials are dismissed without cause, when decades of expertise are replaced by blind loyalty, when the prosecution of insurrectionists is seen as betrayal - then America has crossed a Rubicon. Federal Judge Jia Cobb had to intervene to prevent the names of FBI agents from being made public. Her question during the hearing was revealingly simple: “What is this going to be used for?” The answer is known to anyone who has studied the history of authoritarian regimes: lists are the first step toward systematic persecution.

Driscoll’s final words to his colleagues become a torch of resistance: “Our collective sacrifice for those we serve is and always will be worth it. I regret nothing. You are my heroes and I remain in your debt.” These words are more than a personal farewell. They are a testament to all those who still believe in the ideals the FBI once stood for: Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. But these ideals are now being trampled by men who built their careers on hate, conspiracy theories, and political agitation. History will mark these days as a turning point. The only question is: will it be the moment when America lost its democratic soul for good? Or the low point from which renewal began? What is happening in the FBI is a sign of the times for American democracy as a whole. When the guardians of the law become its destroyers, when loyalty triumphs over justice, when vengeance replaces fairness - then nothing less than the republic itself is at stake.
The United States is sliding into a darkness from which there may be no return. The purges within the FBI are only the beginning. What follows when the country’s most important law enforcement agency is fully politicized? No one wants to experience the answer to that. But it is already becoming clear: an America where law yields to the strong, where truth becomes negotiable, where justice is just an empty word. The destruction of the FBI is the destruction of an America we once knew.
Investigative journalism requires courage, conviction – and your support.

Da bleibt einem die Spucke weg, bei diesen Nachrichten. Sprachlos….
und ich frage mich gerade, hat man in Washington die Uhr bis zu den dreissiger Jahren zurück gedreht? Mit Überschallgeschwindigkeit in die Diktatur…. ob die nicht MAGA-verblendete Bevölkerung diese Entwicklung noch aufhalten kann?
Mir läuft es kalt den Rücken runter, wenn ich an meine Freunde in Boston denke… Ich wäre ich schon längst in die europäische Heimat zurück gezogen…
🙏🏼 für Eure unermüdliche Arbeit und tolle Leistung, ohne Euch würden wir im Nebel stehen und nur weichgespülte Berichterstattung lesen können 🙏🏼
ich danke dir, ja es brennt überall, wir kommen kaum noch nach
Es ist unglaublich in welchem Tempo das alles erfolgt.
Kampala Harris hat es mehr als einmal sehr deutlich gesagt, dass Trump mit einer Racheliste ins WH einzieht.
Es wollte keiner hören.
Aber genau so ist es gekommen.
Das FBI wird zur SS.
Nur Loyalität gegenüber Trump zählt.
Nicht Rechtstaatlichkeit.
Wenn verurteilte Täter des 6. Januar, von Trump Begnadigung, sich auf Posten des Justizministeriums, bei ICE etc wieder finden, sagt das Alles.
Republikaner in Texas fordern das FBI an/auf um die geflohenen Demokraten zurück nach Texas zu bringen, damit sie ihrer „gerechten Strafe“ zugeführt werden können.
Politiker der Opposition kriminalisieren, inhaftieren …. alles eindeutig eine Autokratie.
Und es wird noch schlimmer.
Denn Trump tauscht immer mehr und mehr Personen gegen Loyalität aus.
Ich sehe nicht, dass die USA das in Meiner Lebenszeit noch ändern können.
Dazu gibt es zu wenig Widerstand in meinen Augen.
Bei Hitler hat es 22 Jahre gedauert. Hätte er keinen Mehrfrontenkrieg geführt und Japan Pearl Harbor angegriffen, wäre Deutschland auch komplett in der Naziwelt versunken.
Denn die westlichen Welt hat sich überhaupt nicht wirklich für die Deportation der Juden und anders Denkender interessiert.
Haben 1936 noch begeistert bei der Olympiade in Berlin mitgemacht.
Aber wer soll die Irren in der USA aufhalten?