One of Donald Trump’s first acts after taking the Oval Office for a second time was to remove Christopher Wray as director of the FBI and replace him with Acting Director Brian Driscoll.
That may have been the only smooth day Driscoll had this year, as he soon found himself on the president's radar.
This week, after having been removed from his post and relegated to lesser duties, Driscoll has reportedly been fired by new FBI Director Kash Patel.
Wray knew that Trump was going to fire him as soon as he took his oath of office, so he announced that he was leaving the agency even before the president returned to D.C.
Paul Abbate was named as acting director, but he decided to retire after only one day in the post, which is when Trump named Driscoll as acting director until Patel could pass through the nomination process.
The press release that accompanied Driscoll’s promotion stated, "In March 2011, Mr. Driscoll was selected as an operator for FBI's HRT. Ultimately, he became an HRT team leader, responsible for the planning and execution of tactical solutions in furtherance of FBI global operations."
It continued, "He also collaborated with foreign law enforcement and military partners to conduct operations and training, strengthening FBI global partnerships."
Driscoll was only at his post for a few weeks when reports surfaced that he was resisting the call from the Justice Department to fire any agents involved in prosecuting Jan. 6 cases, a cause near and dear to the heart of Donald Trump.
Reports indicated that Driscoll had assured all agents that he would follow the law to protect them, having written a memo that stated, "As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people -- always.”
As these reports were surfacing, it was also revealed that Driscoll had informed agents of the directive from the DOJ, stating, “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. I have been personally in touch with each of these impacted employees."
Driscoll’s memos became a hot topic of debate in D.C. during Patel's confirmation process, and he was repeatedly asked if he would go on a revenge tour at the FBI over the Jan. 6 cases, to which he responded, “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”
On Thursday morning, reports broke that Driscoll had been terminated, once again bringing the idea of a revenge tour top of mind.
As reports of his removal surfaced, Driscoll’s firing was being called “retribution” for his actions, but the FBI and the DOJ were not responding to calls for comments on the firing. Reporting indicated only that the officials who had been terminated were told they needed to be out of the building by Friday.
FBI sources have further stated that they do not expect this to be the end of the firings, as this investigation was the largest of its sort undertaken by the agency, with Driscoll having previously noted that collectively, thousands of agents and civilian staffers were involved.
This will surely create a negative news cycle for Trump, who is already battling narratives of dictatorship and authoritarianism in the media. As Trump is known to do, I fully expect him to make an outrageous comment or some huge announcement within the administration to deflect away from this story because he simply cannot allow a negative round of headlines impact the Republican cause as we get closer to the 2026 election cycle.
