There Is Still Hope

Senior FBI official forcefully resisted Trump administration firings

Brian Driscoll, Acting FBI Director, shared a memo with the FBI workforce and public to make staff firings visible.  This takes courage and some in the FBI fear that Driscoll will also be dismissed. 

Driscoll sent a memo to the FBI workforce explaining that Emil Bove, the acting Deputy Attorney General and Trump’s former defense lawyer, had ordered him to remove eight senior FBI executives. He also said he had been told to turn over the names of every FBI employee involved in investigating Jan. 6 rioters.

“Late this afternoon, I received a memo from the acting Deputy Attorney General notifying me that eight senior FBI executives are to be terminated by specific dates, unless these employees have retired beforehand,” Driscoll wrote. “I have been personally in touch with each of these impacted employees.”  He said in the memo that he had also been directed to provide the DOJ by noon on Tuesday a list of all FBI employees involved in Capitol riot cases, and also those involved in a case against a Hamas leader. “We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” he wrote. “I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director (Rob) Kissane.”

I cannot imagine the current morale in the FBI and the fear of taking on any potentially controversial cases in the future.  Thank you Driscoll for standing up and speaking out and for all of the FBI Agents who helped make our country safer and more secure.

Senior USAID official ousted after fighting back against removal of career leadership

An order sidelining almost 60 senior career leaders at the U.S. Agency for International Development was temporarily rescinded Thursday by one of the few remaining senior career civil servants with the authority to do so, two current and two former USAID employees told NBC News.

Hours later, the same career employee was also placed on administrative leave. “The materials show no evidence that you engaged in misconduct,” Nick Gottlieb, USAID’s director of employee and labor relations, said in an email to the dozens of senior USAID employees placed on paid leave Monday. “As a result, I no longer have authority to maintain you in this status.” Gottlieb acknowledged that he did not know how long his decision would hold.

“You may receive another email within the day reinstating your leave status. However, that notice will not come from me,” he wrote, adding, “I wish you all the best — you do not deserve this.”

Hours after reinstating senior career leadership Thursday, Gottlieb was also placed on administrative leave for refusing a request from USAID’s front office and Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency to issue “immediate termination notices to a group of employees without due process,” he wrote in a farewell letter to all USAID employees reviewed by NBC.

“It is and has always been my office’s commitment to the workforce that we ensure all employees receive their due process in any of our actions,” Gottlieb wrote. “I will not be party to a violation of that commitment.”

Thank you, Nick Gottlieb, for standing up and speaking out and for the US Aid staff who made a difference for others!!