A handful of senior F.B.I. employees have been told to resign in a matter of days or be fired, as the Trump administration moves to shake up the agency’s upper ranks, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The moves came as Kash Patel, the president’s nominee to lead the agency, pledged to lawmakers that he would not begin a campaign of retribution nor look backward. It is unclear whether he was informed of the decisions, which were discussed on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive personnel matters.
Senior agents had been bracing for the new administration to make potentially swift changes at the bureau, which Mr. Patel has promised to do. He has publicly vowed to empty out the F.B.I. headquarters building and turn it into a museum.
The employees given the apparent ultimatum were promoted under Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director who stepped down this month and whom Mr. Patel hopes to succeed. Brian Driscoll was recently named the bureau’s acting director.
F.B.I. directors have more latitude than most agency chiefs in who they place into senior positions, but they typically do so gradually. The shake-up is remarkable in part because it is happening before a director is confirmed to take charge of the bureau.
The decision by President Trump’s administration echoes similar ones being made at the Justice Department, where career prosecutors, including top officials who hold significant sway over how the agency makes charging decisions, have been reassigned or fired.
At the F.B.I., some of the senior officials who have been asked to leave are at headquarters while others work in the field. Some have already taken steps to retire and exit the agency, including an agent who worked on the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and another who oversaw an investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Two people familiar with the personnel changes said the agent in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office would also leave the bureau but had intended to do so well before the personnel changes this week at the F.B.I. and Justice Department.
Still more are worried they will be pushed out of the agency or demoted.
CNN earlier reported on Thursday that FB.I. officials had been demoted or resigned.
