Several senior FBI leaders ousted without explanation, sources say
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(WASHINGTON) — Several top FBI officials were ousted from their jobs this week, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News, including the former acting director of the bureau who previously resisted efforts to compile a list of agents who worked on the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Sources tell ABC News that among those informed of their terminations are former acting FBI director Brian Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the Washington, D.C. Field office Steven Jensen, and agents Walter Giardina and Christopher Meyer.
It does not appear that any were informed of the rationale behind their terminations, the sources said.
The firings have alarmed many rank-and-file agents due to concerns over whether the moves were politically motivated, said the sources. Giardina and Meyer, for instance, previously worked on investigations involving President Donald Trump.
Driscoll, who had served for nearly 20 years in the bureau, including a variety of leadership positions, was elevated briefly to the role of acting director in the opening days of Trump’s presidency.
He received praise from some agents and law enforcement groups over his brief standoff with Emil Bove, Trump’s former defense attorney who pushed Trump’s agenda at the Justice Department prior to the confirmation of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Driscoll had resisted an order from Bove to compile a list of all agents who aided the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6, which Bove later described in a memo as an act of “insubordination.”
After the Senate confirmed Kash Patel as FBI director, Driscoll was assigned to lead the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group.
In his parting email sent Thursday to staffers, which was obtained by ABC News, Driscoll said he was informed of his termination Wednesday night and was given no reason for the move.
“I understand that you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I currently have no answers,” Driscoll wrote, according to the email. “No cause has been articulated at this time. Please know that it has been the honor of my life to serve alongside each of you.”
Sources said that Jensen’s firing similarly came as a surprise to senior leadership at the U.S. attorney’s D.C. field office, where Jensen was set to appear Thursday at a press conference on the unsealing of a hate crimes indictment charging the suspect in the Capitol Jewish Museum shooting.
Jensen was instead replaced at the press event by the chief of the Washington field office’s criminal division.
Asked by ABC News about the reason behind Jensen’s dismissal, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro declined to answer.
“I’m not going to talk about politics today. I’m talking about crime, talking about hate crimes,” Pirro said.
Officials with the FBI and Justice Department also declined to comment on the firings.
(NEW YORK) — A small earthquake centered in northern New Jersey on Tuesday rattled the New York City metropolitan area, officials said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the tremor that hit just after noon was centered in Hillsdale, in Bergen County, and measured a magnitude 2.7 on the Richter scale.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, but people across the region reported feeling the quake on social media.
The quake was the second one to hit the New York City metro region four days. Both earthquakes were centered in Bergen County.
On Saturday night, a 3.0 magnitude earthquake was centered northeast of Hasbrouck Heights, about 10 kilometers below the surface, according to the USGS.
Though the quake was relatively minor, there were reports of brief shaking in parts of the area.
In a statement posted on social media, New York City Emergency Management said Saturday’s tremor may have been felt in parts of New York City but that there were no reports of injuries or damage in the city.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends day 1 of the 4th Annual WIE Symposium at Center 548 on September 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has denied the Trump administration’s motion to unseal grand jury testimony from the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it announced last month that no additional files would be released.
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein.
In his 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York criticized the Department of Justice for using “demonstrably false” reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony.
The transcripts would “not reveal new information of any consequence” about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, according to Judge Engelmayer, who suggested that the Trump administration’s push to release documents might be an intentional “diversion.”
“Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” he wrote.
Engelmayer wrote that the transcripts contain material already in the public record and lack any firsthand information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes. The records do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell who had sexual contact with a minor, mention any clients, shed light on their methods, or provide new information about Epstein’s death, Engelmayer wrote.
“Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine lode of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates, they definitively are not that. A ‘public official,’ ‘lawmaker,’ ‘pundit,’ or ‘ordinary citizen’ ‘deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,’ and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no ‘there’ there,” the judge wrote.
Engelmayer also suggested that the only reason that might justify the release of the records would be to “expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal.”
“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he wrote.
Engelmayer is the second judge to deny the administration’s motions to unseal secret grand jury testimony related to Epstein and Maxwell. Last month, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg dismissed the DOJ’s motion to unseal testimony from the first federal investigation of Epstein in Florida that began in the mid-2000s.
A third federal judge in New York is still considering the administration’s request to unseal testimony in the second Epstein investigation in 2019.
The government’s move to unseal grand jury testimony came after the Trump administration faced backlash for its decision last month not to release any further materials from investigations against Epstein and Maxwell, after repeated statements that it planned to do so.
According to a three-page evidence list released by the Justice Department in February, the government is in possession of more than 300 gigabytes of data obtained during those investigations. The remaining materials include 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices, according to the evidence index.
The evidence also includes approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photographs, travel logs, employee lists, more than $17,000 in cash, five massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home, four busts of female body parts, a pair of women’s cowboy boots and one stuffed dog, according to the list.
The unreleased evidence notably includes multiple documents related to two islands Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little Saint James — where his compound was located — and Greater Saint James. According to the index, the files include a folder containing Island blueprints, photographs and other documents.
Some of the documents could shed light on who visited the island. According to the index, the files also include a Little Saint James logbook as well as multiple logs of boat trips to and from the island.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while facing federal child sex trafficking charges. The well-connected financier has long been rumored to have kept a “client list” of celebrities and politicians, which right-wing influencers have baselessly accused authorities of hiding.
The Justice Department and FBI announced last month that they had found no evidence that Epstein kept such a list, after several top officials, before joining the administration, had themselves accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
In its joint memo, the FBI and DOJ argued that a “large portion” of the records included photographs of victims and child pornography. According to the DOJ, the evidence includes “images and videos” of victims who appear to be minors, “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” and a “large volume” of images of Epstein.
“While we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
(TIPTONVILLE, Tenn.) — A manhunt is underway for a 29-year-old man who allegedly killed four people and left their baby alive, Tennessee authorities said.
Austin Robert Drummond is considered armed and dangerous following the killings of 21-year-old James M. Wilson, 38-year-old Cortney Rose, 20-year-old Adrianna Williams and Williams’ brother, 15-year-old Braydon Williams, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
The three adults and the teenager were killed on Tuesday and found along a road in Lake County, in northwest Tennessee near the state’s borders with Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky, authorities said.
The same day, Wilson and Williams’ baby girl was left in a car seat in a “random individual’s front yard” in nearby Dyer County, according to the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office and Danny Goodman, district attorney for Dyer and Lake counties.
The infant was safe and treated by paramedics, authorities said.
Authorities believe Drummond knew the victims, Goodman said.
Drummond is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, the TBI said.
A reward of up to $15,000 is available for information leading to his arrest, the TBI said.
Drummond is believed to be driving a 2016 Audi A3. The car has damage to the driver’s side and has a Tennessee license plate RI 01896, police said.
Authorities urge anyone with information to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
