The FBI now has a team of special agents that’s being internally referred to as the “payback squad” specifically put together to handle politically sensitive cases, according to four sources briefed on the matter who spoke to NOTUS on the condition of anonymity.

The team is understood to be made up of agents who are willing to pursue political targets set by the Trump administration, with one current government official noting that investigators are tasked with building cases similar to the recent criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. The sources — which include two current government officials, a former official and a fourth person familiar with current operations — differed on whether the squad is based out of Washington headquarters or New York.

A current law enforcement official described the squad as a team of agents who know what they’re signing up for and work temporary rotations at an off-site location away from standard FBI field offices as part of an effort that began roughly a year ago.

Asked about the matter, a senior FBI official speaking on background denied that a new squad was created with that particular name. However, this person said bureau personnel are likely referring to an effort stemming from what is officially called the Director’s Advisory Team, a group that was created early last year as a “special investigative” unit tasked with “getting to the bottom of some abuses of power that happened” during the previous three presidential administrations. That relatively new investigative team was “detached” from the FBI’s Washington Field Office and has recently added new agents out of New York, the senior official said.

This official said the Director’s Advisory Team is currently building a criminal case that seeks to charge former top government officials with a “grand conspiracy” against President Donald Trump. That particular investigation aims to indict former CIA Director John Brennan in the coming weeks, likely in South Florida, according to two other officials with knowledge of the matter.

The Director’s Advisory Team includes former FBI agent John Eckenrode, who previously worked on the special counsel investigation led by the prosecutor John Durham that examined the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. According to a source with knowledge of the Brennan probe, Eckenrode and others on the Director’s Advisory Team in recent weeks have discussed the progress of the investigation with federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Joseph diGenova, the newly appointed Trump loyalist who was sworn in as a “special counselor to the attorney general” to lead the effort.

The news about the so-called “payback squad” comes as FBI Director Kash Patel faced a grilling Tuesday from Democratic senators, who questioned his fitness to lead the bureau in light of recent stories in The Atlantic that claimed he “has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked whether Patel has subsequently forced FBI staff to undergo polygraph lie-detector tests in an attempt to identify who has spoken to journalists, prompting Patel to attack him directly.

Sen. Patty Murray cited “extremely troubling stories recently about your leadership and temperament” and asked him whether the FBI is investigating journalists.

“I can tell you unequivocally, this FBI is targeting no journalists,” Patel responded.