January 31, 2025 3:19PM # Trump Administration Purge of FBI Managers Underway By [Patrick G. Eddington](https://www.cato.org/people/patrick-g-eddington) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... A short time ago, [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/several-top-fbi-officials-are-told-resign-face-demotion-trump-continue-rcna190095) and the [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/us/politics/trump-fbi-firing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tU4.D4rV.hV69mA5Z1aTg&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) both reported that the Trump administration is removing or forcing the resignations of several FBI executive assistant directors (EADs), which normally are Senior Executive Service (SES) level employees—managers that are the buffer between political appointees and the civil service workforce. Cato has been able to independently determine that the purge includes **all** EADs and over two dozen Special Agents in Charge (SAC) have either been escorted from Bureau buildings or asked to resign by close of business today. This is a developing story. ##### Related Tags [Criminal Justice](https://www.cato.org/criminal-justice), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).