Firings and forced resignations at FBI worry veterans of the agency

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Dozens of FBI agents have been fired or forced to resign since President Trump took office this year. It's the way they are being removed that really worries some veterans of the bureau. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Mike Clark is president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. It's rare for him to speak out, but Clark says the removal of several top FBI agents and officials this month deserves attention.

MIKE CLARK: We just feel that shortcuts were taken and, you know, the public is due an explanation.

JOHNSON: Clark worked as an agent for 21 years.

CLARK: We have always advocated that if an agent is going to face some type of adversarial or negative personnel action, that they be afforded due process.

JOHNSON: But the men who were pushed out this month did not get a clear reason for their dismissal, and the FBI did not seem to follow procedures in place to investigate and punish employees. Beverly Gage is a professor at Yale and author of an acclaimed book on longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

BEVERLY GAGE: Under Hoover, the FBI was an extremely paperwork- and process-bound institution. And this seems like something else altogether.

JOHNSON: The FBI said it had no comment on personnel matters, but the absence of an explanation is giving rise to questions about political motivations. Chris Mattei is a lawyer who's represented the FBI Agents Association.

CHRIS MATTEI: People in law enforcement and professionals in law enforcement are being given the message, both explicitly and implicitly, that their first responsibility is to show loyalty to the administration rather than fidelity to their oath.

JOHNSON: One of the people fired this month is Brian Driscoll, who's won awards for bravery. Driscoll once helped rescue a toddler taken hostage in Alabama. He also took part in a daring raid in Syria to rescue an American woman held captive by the Islamic State. This year, he briefly led the entire FBI when he recorded this video message.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRIAN DRISCOLL: We will never take our eyes off of our mission - protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution. Because at the bureau, we're focused on the work.

JOHNSON: But Driscoll's now out of a job - about two years before he was eligible for a pension. Two other longtime agents were dismissed this month with no pension, too. One of those men recently lost his wife to cancer. Friends have launched an online donation form for them. It's all part of what experts are calling a slow-rolling purge at the bureau. Again, Beverly Gage.

GAGE: It does seem that this level of instability - am I going to be able to make a career; am I going to be able to retire with full benefits? - is going to have a dramatic impact on recruiting and on the culture of the bureau as it exists right now.

JOHNSON: Agents cannot say no when they're assigned to work on a case, but the firings this year could cause some of them to worry about the political ramifications of their assignments and compromise the bureau's ability to protect the public. Democrats in the Senate are asking a Justice Department watchdog to investigate the firings at the FBI and how they may have damaged its core mission.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

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