Judge temporarily bars Justice Department from disclosing information about FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 probes

Washington — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday temporarily prevented the Justice Department from disclosing information about FBI agents who fear they will be targeted because of their work on cases involving President Trump and the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ordered that the Justice Department may not disclose the list of FBI agents who worked on the investigations to anyone outside the department — which would include any other federal entity or outside group, as well as public disclosure — until she hears arguments Friday as to whether to issue a temporary restraining order sought by unnamed FBI agents and the FBI Agents Association in a pair of cases brought earlier this week.

Cobb’s decision comes after an hourslong hearing, during which the Justice Department and lawyers for the agents discussed an order governing the potential disclosure of names of FBI personnel who were involved in the Jan. 6 cases, which was compiled by the bureau and turned over to the Justice Department this week.

She said in her order, “The government has represented that the information at issue in this case has not been shared outside of the DOJ.”

The brief hold will remain in place until the two sides reconvene for the continuation of the hearing or reach an agreement on the terms of the order.

Cobb, who sits on the federal district court in Washington and was nominated for her seat by former President Biden in 2021, said during the hearing that if the list of names was to be released overnight, FBI agents could face “significant and immediate danger.”

The challenge stemmed from a memorandum issued by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week that directed the FBI to provide lists of current and former personnel assigned at any time to investigations and prosecutions related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The department required the FBI to turn over the information by Tuesday, and the bureau complied with the deadline, the Justice Department said. FBI Acting Director Brian Driscoll said in a message to the bureau that the data it provided identified employees by their Unique Employee Identifier, current title, title at the time of the Jan. 6 investigation, the office where they are currently assigned, role in the investigation of prosecution and date of last activity related to the probes.

Mr. Trump has nominated Kash Patel, a close ally of the president’s, to lead the FBI, but the Senate has not yet voted on his confirmation.

A lawyer representing the unnamed FBI agents and employees said that were it not for Driscoll turning over identification numbers, the government would have a list of the names of agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases. The Justice Department also has information compiled through surveys sent to certain FBI employees about their activities related to the Jan. 6 investigations, including the extent of their roles, she warned.

“We are one step away from those names getting released,” the lawyer said, adding that it will be “irreparable” if they are disclosed.

The lawyer said a chief concern is the names of the FBI personnel could be leaked to a third party or published by the Trump administration.

“Our argument is that the threat to national security is so extreme that we cannot risk letting it happen first and then trying to put it back together,” she said.

The lawyer noted that since Mr. Trump returned to the White House, billionaire Elon Musk, through the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has made public the names of other government employees. She also said that some Jan. 6 defendants who were granted clemency by Mr. Trump have also suggested on social media that they would target FBI agents.

Mark Zaid, who is representing some of the unnamed FBI employees, estimated there are between 5,000 and 6,000 whose information was turned over to the Justice Department.

A Justice Department lawyer, Jeremy Simon, went back and forth with Cobb about the language of a potential court order that would temporarily bar the Justice Department from disclosing without notice the list of FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 cases to entities and people outside of the department.

Asked whether any other government agency intends to release that information while the court considers a motion for a preliminary injunction, Simon said he was not in a position to make representations about agencies outside of the Justice Department.

Simon also declined to definitively confirm the names hadn’t been shared outside of the Justice Department, telling the judge that there has not been an “official disclosure.”

The Justice Department has argued in a court filing that it was seeking information about FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases to start a review process in conjunction with Mr. Trump’s executive order aimed at ending what he calls the weaponization of the federal government. 

Government lawyers argued in a court filing Thursday morning that they believed there should not be a temporary restraining order implemented because of “speculation involving future predictions of potential harm” — not actual harm in the eyes of the government — and the FBI agents’ “speculative” belief that the list of agents may be leaked outside of the department. 

Bove, meanwhile, sought to assuage concerns that agents could be retaliated against in an email disseminated to the FBI on Wednesday, writing that “no FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to the January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties.”

The deputy attorney general, who served as a defense lawyer to Mr. Trump, wrote that “the only individuals who should be concerned about the process initiated by my January 31, 2025, memo are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from Department leadership, or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the FBI.”

In their request for a temporary restraining order, the FBI agents argued the Justice Department is planning to take “adverse employment actions” and make public the names and identities of those targeted. One group of seven FBI agents and the FBI Agents Association said the disclosure would harm them, their colleagues and families, “all but guaranteeing they will face threats of physical harm and emotional harassment in violation of their First Amendment and Due Process rights.”

Lawyers for the FBI agents wrote in their request that the Justice Department is seeking to retaliate against them by making public their identities “simply because those individuals honorably performed their duties in connection with sensitive law enforcement investigations.”

“Such acts are unconscionable, dangerous to the American public and illegal under the U.S. Constitution and numerous federal laws,” they wrote.

But Justice Department lawyers said the agents’ request is based on a “speculation involving future predictions of potential harm related to the information provided.”

“Plaintiffs can point to nothing that suggests the government intends to make public the list in this case,” they wrote in a filing. “To the contrary, the department and FBI management have repeatedly stressed the purpose of the list is to conduct an internal review, not expose dedicated special agents to public insult or ridicule.”