At Issue: The Politicization of the F.B.I. Featuring New York Times F.B.I. and DOJ correspondent Devlin Barrett and Former F.B.I. Agent Michael Feinberg

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Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series At Issue in April. The series examines the many critical issues we are faced with today.

The New York Times recently published an editorial board opinion titled, “Trump’s Politicized F.B.I. Has Made Americans Less Safe,” in which it argues, “Only 11 days after President Trump was inaugurated for a second term, his administration began a purge of the F.B.I. that now threatens some of the bureau’s most important missions. His appointees ousted eight of its most experienced managers, including the division heads overseeing national security, cybersecurity and criminal investigations. Several had worked on prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters or had assisted in the various investigations of Mr. Trump, and Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, said they could not be trusted to carry out the president’s agenda.

That was just the beginning. Over the past five months, many F.B.I. agents, including other top managers and national security experts, have been fired, pressured to leave or transferred to lesser roles. Hundreds have resigned on their own, [including Michael Feinberg], unwilling to follow the demands of the Trump administration. Their absence has left a vacuum in divisions that are supposed to protect the public. Mr. Trump’s playbook for the F.B.I. is plain to see. He is turning it into an enforcement agency for MAGA’s priorities.”

As Devlin Barrett noted in recent reporting, “The Trump administration has taken a host of measures meant to punish his perceived enemies. He has also forced out F.B.I. agents and executives and demoted or reassigned a wide swath of senior Justice Department officials whom Mr. Trump and his top aides do not trust. In firing scores of law enforcement officials based solely on Mr. Trump’s expansive claim of executive power, the administration has flouted longstanding civil service laws meant to ensure the public receives professional services from government agencies. Many of those fired individuals have sued, but the cases are moving slowly through the courts.”

Michael Feinberg, a top deputy in the Norfolk, Va., office, had ties to a former agent whom Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, identified in his book as part of the so-called deep state. The moves add to the transfers, ousters and demotions that have rippled across the F.B.I. as Mr. Patel and Dan Bongino, his No. 2, promise to remake the country’s premier law enforcement agency. The wave of changes, current and former agents say, amount to little more than retaliation, underscoring what they describe as the politicization of the F.B.I. as its leaders seek to mollify Mr. Trump’s supporters.

Critics say Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino, who are clear about their loyalty to the president and lack the experience of their predecessors, are simply doing what they railed about for years under the previous administration: weaponizing the bureau. In a statement addressing his decision to step down, Mr. Feinberg denounced the agency as an organization that had begun “to decay.”

Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The New York Times, explaining how decisions are made inside these powerful and often secretive agencies that have played an ever-growing role in American politics. Barrett joined The Times in 2024 after covering federal law enforcement for more than two decades for The New York Post, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Barrett has covered many significant FBI-related stories, including the Mar-a-Lago documents, the Mueller investigation reaching into the Trump White House, and the Jan. 6 FBI warning about extremism.

He is also the author of the book October Surprise: How the F.B.I. Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election, which details the FBI’s role in the 2016 presidential election. The book recounts the enormously consequential role of the Justice Department and F.B.I. in the 2016 presidential election. Barrett was part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he was a co-finalist for both the Pulitzer for feature writing and the Pulitzer for international reporting.

Michael Feinberg is currently a Public Service Fellow with the Lawfare Institute, and a former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he spent the overwhelming majority of his career combatting the People’s Republic of China’s intelligence services. During the course of his tenure with the Bureau he worked in the Los Angeles, Washington, and Norfolk Field Offices, with additional time spent at FBI Headquarters. He is a recipient of the FBI’s highest recognition, the Director’s Award for Excellence, for his work serving as the primary architect of the investigation of Huawei Technologies, a number of its subsidiaries, and multiple employees. He was also nominated for the commendation two times previously, both also focusing on East Asian matters. He was awarded numerous other Bureau honors and recognized by the Director of National Intelligence for his counterintelligence efforts on three separate occasions. Under his leadership, numerous squads in multiple field offices successfully prosecuted Chinese intelligence officers, their agents – including one working as a mole within the FBI – and multiple corporate entities facilitating the PRC’s intelligence operations. Toward the end of his career, Michael spent time on counterterrorism matters, as well.

Prior to his service with the FBI, he was an attorney in both private and public practice. He has a B.A. cum laude and J.D. from Brandeis University and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, respectively, and spent multiple summers at Middlebury College studying Mandarin. The opinions presented at this event are entirely his own and not that of the U.S. government.