The FBI’s top official in New York was forced out on Monday, just weeks after he vowed to “dig in” and resist the Trump administration’s purge of agents who investigated the January 6 assault on the Capitol.
In an email to staff on Monday, James Dennehy confirmed that he had been ordered to leave – or be fired, according to sources interviewed by NBC News.
“Late Friday, I was informed that I needed to put my retirement papers in today, which I just did … I was not given a reason for this decision,” said Dennehy.
Dennehy’s ouster comes a month after the removal of eight veteran FBI officials, including the head of the Washington field office, involved in criminal investigations into Trump, which were launched after he lost the 2020 election. Department of Justice officials also demanded the names of all FBI agents who investigated Trump supporters who participated in the January 6 2021 attack that led to at least seven deaths.
“Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own as good people are being walked out of the FBI,” Dennehy wrote to staff last month. “And others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy.”
Dennehy compared the situation to his experience as a marine in the early 1990s. He recalled digging a small 5ft-deep foxhole where he hunkered down for safety.
“Time for me to dig in,” Dennehy said.
The resistance by Dennehy – along with the acting director, Brian Driscoll, and the acting deputy director, Rob Kissane – prevented the retaliatory firing of thousands of FBI officials, NBC News reported. Dennehy’s removal is likely to reignite fears of mass layoffs of career officers who were simply following the law and FBI policies.
Trump has promised to fire “some” FBI agents who he said were “corrupt” – without providing any evidence.
Dennehy spent six years in the Marine Corps before joining the FBI after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was appointed to lead the New York office in September 2024, and played a key role in the corruption investigation of the New York city mayor, Eric Adams.
In February, Trump justice department officials ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against Adams. Seven prosecutors in New York and Washington refused to follow the order and resigned over what they said was a quid pro quo – dropping the charges if Adams supported Trump’s immigration crackdown. Four of the mayor’s deputies also resigned in protest of the deal. Trump officials and Adams’s lawyer denied that any such agreement had been made.
In his farewell email on Monday, Dennehy urged FBI officials to maintain the agency’s independence.
“As I leave today, I have an immense feeling of pride – to have represented an office of professionals who will always do the right thing for the right reasons; who will always seek the truth while upholding the rule of law,” he wrote. “Who will always handle cases and evidence with an overabundance of caution and care for the innocent, the victims, and the process first; and who will always remain independent”.
Dennehy’s departure comes amid mounting fears over the influence of Trump and his political allies in the justice system. The new FBI director, Kash Patel, campaigned for Trump throughout the 2024 election, and has been condemned for his so-called “enemies list” – the 50 current and former US officials Patel named as “members of the Executive Branch deep state” in his 2023 book Government Gangsters.
The new deputy director of the FBI is Dan Bongino, a pro-Trump podcaster, former police officer and Secret Service agent who has accused the FBI of staging the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Bongino is the first deputy director, the most senior operational post at the FBI, in its history to not be a career agent.
