{"id":486888,"date":"2026-10-06T12:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486888\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:32:08","slug":"fbi-whistleblower-says-white-house-pushed-unconstitutional-probe-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486888\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI whistleblower says White House pushed unconstitutional probe \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration<\/a> pushed the FBI<\/a> to investigate Los Angeles<\/a> protesters in violation of their constitutional rights and the bureau\u2019s policies, a former FBI supervisor alleges in a new whistleblower complaint.<\/p>\n

Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles Field Office, made a formal whistleblower complaint to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders over the federal response to anti-ICE protest activity around federal buildings, as well as in a residential area, early last year. <\/p>\n

Fields asked Congress and the Justice Department’s<\/a> watchdog to investigate the allegations, her attorneys said in a letter to lawmakers. She says they violated the First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assemble.<\/p>\n

Fields says Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, told the head of the field office to open an investigation into activities outside the federal building even though, she says, the activities were protected free speech. Separately, she says the White House<\/a> gave a directive to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate a group of protesters using megaphones during immigration enforcement operations after FBI agents had conducted a check into the conduct and declined to open an investigation.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> had viewed a video of people using megaphones to alert residents about immigration activities, advise them of their legal rights and encourage them not to open their doors unless immigration enforcement agents had signed judicial warrants, according to the letter.<\/p>\n

A person whose name is redacted in the complaint told Fields that an investigation would be opened because \u201cthe President wants this investigation,\u201d Fields\u2019 whistleblower complaint says.<\/p>\n

The protests were staged across Los Angeles after the Trump administration launched an immigration enforcement operation. Fields said the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles office had pulled agents off active cartel cases to satisfy what a supervisor described as \u201coptics\u201d designed to \u201cmake a show for the president.\u201d The area would be the scene of major protests<\/a> later in the year during an immigration surge in cities nationwide. <\/p>\n

The FBI and the Justice Department didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. Justice Department officials have previously said government workers need to follow the Trump administration\u2019s priorities. Last week, Justice Department leaders filed an administrative complaint about federal judges who made remarks<\/a> to the media about the impact the surge in immigration enforcement had on their courtrooms.<\/p>\n

Fields says supervisors were told not to put things in writing, so many of the directives came in face-to-face meetings. She says she didn\u2019t know whether any formal investigation was opened because she was excluded once she refused to participate. <\/p>\n

Fields consulted with a senior FBI official in charge of privacy and civil liberties matters, who expressed dismay about the investigation and subsequently told Fields she planned to resign, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Fields, too, resigned from the bureau, after she was informed that she would be removed from heading three programs, a decision she believes constituted retaliation for making protected internal disclosures. The FBI\u2019s actions, according to the letter, \u201ccreated a chilling effect within the workforce\u201d and \u201csignaled to other employees that raising constitutional or legal concerns could carry professional consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conduct \u201chad significant consequences for constitutional rights, and the integrity and effective operation of the FBI,\u201d according to the complaint. <\/p>\n

Hundreds of FBI agents and Justice Department attorneys have resigned or been fired since Trump returned to office<\/a>, particularly those who were involved in investigating him, and former Justice Department employees have expressed concerns that the nation\u2019s top law enforcement agency is doing the bidding of the president. <\/p>\n

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., told NBC News that Fields\u2019 disclosure is another instance of Trump\u2019s weaponizing the Justice Department to go after his perceived political enemies. Padilla, who himself was forcibly removed from a news conference featuring then-Homeland Security Kristi Noem in June 2025<\/a>, is the ranking member of the Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many more of these investigations have been opened up because of political pressure coming from the White House, despite the questions and concerns about legality and constitutionality?\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on civil service protections through unilateral firings, as well as the mass firings of internal government watchdogs<\/a>, had an impact on the legislative branch\u2019s ability to conduct oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be a significant challenge, but it begins with good, honorable professionals being willing to come forward and tell us what\u2019s going on and what\u2019s wrong with what\u2019s going on,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping others may be inspired, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fields was represented by the nonprofit Government Accountability Project and David Laufman, a former top official in the Justice Department\u2019s National Security Section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration pushed the FBI to investigate Los Angeles protesters in violation of their constitutional rights and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7045,1055,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-486888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-department-of-justice","tag-fbi","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}