Anderson University President John Pistole (right), shown here with FBI Director Christopher Wray in March 2023, said actions by the Trump administration to force out senior leaders at the bureau could have adverse consequences for its operations. CNHI News Indiana file photo
ANDERSON — Some of the Trump administration’s recent actions could have a “chilling effect” on the FBI and its core mission, according to Anderson University President John Pistole.
The administration has moved to fire prosecutors involved in criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has demanded the names of FBI agents involved in those investigations.
Pistole, who spent 5-½ years as the deputy director of the FBI, said this week that the removal of six of the bureau’s most senior leaders, as well as dozens of field office heads around the country, creates “distraction and disruption that could be significantly consequential for not only the FBI as an organization but for the American people, who FBI agents take an oath to protect.”
He said the bureau has traditionally operated apolitically, but in an increasingly polarized environment, that approach has become more difficult to maintain.
“The president, as the chief executive, should honor that tradition for all the obvious reasons so it doesn’t become an investigative arm of the White House,” Pistole said.
“It should be an independent agency that follows the facts, collects the evidence and the intelligence to make a judgement as to whether allegations of criminal activity or intelligence activity or terrorist activity or cybercrimes — whatever it may be — whether those are borne out or not.”
Pistole said he is considering signing a letter circulating among the FBI’s former deputy directors calling on senators to weigh carefully statements by Trump’s nominee to lead the bureau, Kash Patel, that there would be no political retribution in personnel matters if he is confirmed.
Pistole added that current FBI agents who have worked on cases related to Jan. 6 number in the thousands. If those agents are forced out, as has been speculated, the agency’s operations on a host of fronts could be severely compromised, he said.
“If I am to do my job, I might be fired for it later? Who wants to work for an agency like that?” Pistole said.
He noted that because many senior leaders at both the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are political appointments, influence from the executive branch may be unavoidable. But, he said, that influence should never cross over into legal matters.
“The attorney general, the deputy attorney general, all the senior leaders at the Department of Justice, they are political and they need to carry out the president’s agenda,” he said, “but not on things that are not matters of law such as political retaliation. You investigated me, so I’m going to fire you. That’s just absurd.”
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