WASHINGTON: The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday ordered the transfer of 1,500 staffers out of its Washington headquarters, two sources familiar with the orders told Reuters.
Some 1,000 of the staffers would be dispersed to field offices around the country, with another 500 ordered to transfer to Huntsville, Alabama, the sources said, adding that the news was conveyed to employees at a Friday meeting.
An FBI spokesperson did not have immediate comment.
The bureau had 9,414 employees in Washington as of June 2024, with 37,478 nationwide, according to figures kept by the federal government. FBI Director Kash Patel was sworn into his new role on Friday, the day after the Senate confirmed him as US President Donald Trump’s choice in a 51-49 vote with two Republicans voting no, expressing concern about Patel’s past political advocacy and its potential effect on the FBI’s law enforcement mission.
“I promise you the following: there will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend,” Patel said after being sworn in. Patel takes charge as the Trump administration seeks to put their stamp on the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice Department, challenging decades-old traditions of independence and reorienting its mission toward Trump’s core priorities.
At least 75 career Justice Department lawyers and FBI officials, who normally keep their roles from administration to administration, have either resigned, been fired or stripped of their posts in the first month of the Trump administration.
Patel telegraphed his plans for the shakeup in his book “Government Gangsters,” where he proposed moving the FBI’s headquarters out of Washington D.C. to prevent “institutional capture and curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.”
Patel has said he will increase the FBI’s role in countering illegal immigration and violent crime, top Trump priorities, by “letting good cops be cops.” He has said he will scale back investigative work at the FBI’s Washington headquarters where many counterintelligence, national security and public corruption probes are housed.
The FBI has an office in Huntsville, Alabama at Redstone Arsenal, a US Army post that also houses Department of Defense and NASA offices.
Patel has been among the biggest boosters of claims that a “deep state” within the government has pursued Trump in an attempt to sink his political prospects.
FBI to transfer 1,500 staffers out of Washington headquarters, two sources say
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FBI to transfer 1,500 staffers out of Washington headquarters, two sources say
- FBI Director Kash Patel was sworn into his new role on Friday
Russia says two crew members from US-seized tanker released
- “Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” Zakharova said
- Russia announced earlier this month that the US had decided to release the Russian duo
MOSCOW: Moscow said Wednesday two Russian crew members of a tanker seized this month by the United States in the Atlantic had been released and were on their way home.
US authorities took over the Russian-flagged vessel earlier this month, alleging it was part of a shadow fleet carrying oil from countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
The United States said publicly that the Marinera’s crew could be prosecuted. Russia said that would be “categorically unacceptable” and accused Washington of stoking tensions and threatening international shipping.
“Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.
Russia announced earlier this month that the United States had decided to release the two Russian crew members, but last week its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the decision had not yet been implemented.
The captain and the first officer of the tanker have left UK waters, Solicitor General for Scotland, Ruth Charteris told a court hearing Tuesday, Press Association news agency reported.
“The captain and the first officer are now aboard the US Coast Guard vessel Munro and have departed the United Kingdom’s territorial sea,” Charteris said.
Twenty-six of the 28 crew have left the ship, officials told AFP. They were processed at a military site in Inverness, Scotland, the court was told, according to Press Association.
Five wanted to travel to the United States and 21 elsewhere. None have claimed asylum, the court heard.
“At the request of the US authorities, crew members have been allowed to disembark for onwards travel,” a UK government spokesperson told AFP Wednesday.
“They will be processed in line with all appropriate immigration and legal requirements.”
Britain was not involved in the movement of the other two crew members, the government said.
The United States seized the tanker, previously known as Bella 1, which was being escorted by the Russian navy, after chasing it from near the Venezuelan coast.
It was re-flagged and re-named to bring it under Russian jurisdiction in a bid to discourage the United States from trying to take it as part of its campaign against Venezuela.
