DOJ Flatly Declined to Destroy a List of FBI Staff Who Worked on Jan. 6 Cases

In court Wednesday, lawyers for FBI employees argued the Trump administration compiled the list for retribution. Government lawyers insist it’s just part of an internal review.

January 6, 2021

Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

Lawyers for FBI employees who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot argued before a federal judge Wednesday that the Department of Justice has compiled the agents’ names not for any internal investigation, but for public revenge.

“It was pretext … for either public release or release to the White House,” said Margaret Donovan, a lawyer representing anonymous FBI employees.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice made clear Wednesday that they had no intention of deleting the list of names.