White House, DOJ pushed FBI to investigate protesters, violating rights: Whistleblower

A new whistleblower complaint accuses the White House as well as top leadership at the Justice Department and the FBI of directing agents to open investigations into Los Angeles protestors, violating the Constitution and bureau policy by targeting them for First Amendment activity. The complaint from former FBI intelligence analyst Jill Fields relays that she was reassigned from the cartels squad in the Los Angeles Field Office amid widespread protests last year responding to Trump administration immigration enforcement.

Fields' disclosure was released by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who demanded a response from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche. He said the complaint shows both agencies were willing to start investigations “at the behest of the White House and Trump loyalists, over the objection of senior staff, and in contravention of agency policy and the Constitution.” The report describes two incidents in which either the White House or DOJ officials pressured FBI staff to open investigations into protestors.

In the first, which occurred in February 2025, Fields said she was told to start an investigation after frustrations over a video showing protestors using megaphones to warn residents about the presence of immigration officers was “communicated down from the White House to Kash Patel.” In another instance, the former No. 2 at the Justice Department, Emil Bove, directed FBI staff to open an investigation into protestors demonstrating outside federal buildings in Los Angeles.

The report noted that investigations against protestors solely for First Amendment activity are explicitly illegal and contrary to FBI policy. In the first incident, protestors using megaphones in Alhambra, Calif., near Los Angeles were telling those facing arrest about their rights. Fields was told that “the President viewed the footage on social media and instructed FBI Director Kash Patel to have the Los Angeles Field Office open an investigation into the protesters.”

Another FBI figure, whose name is redacted in the report, told Fields that in a meeting with Patel, “participants had been informed that the President had viewed video footage of the Alhambra protesters, he was angry about the incident, and he wanted those protesters investigated and arrested.” The report states that a preliminary review of the FBI found that “video recording, use of a megaphone, and verbal objection—were constitutionally protected under the First Amendment and never crossed the line into impeding arrest or being a threat.”

In the second incident, the report cites Bove as being behind another request for an investigation into protestors who were staging their activities near federal buildings in Los Angeles. “Ms. Fields knew from her training and experience that it was extraordinarily unusual for the DOJ or an Acting Deputy Attorney General to directly contact an [assistant director in charge] regarding the opening of an FBI investigative matter,” the report states.

“Ms. Fields also knew based on her experience that the FBI does not open assessments or investigations based on First Amendment protected activity, unless there were actual or potential national security threats or federal criminal activity, or vulnerability to such threats, none of which had been identified here.” The report says the request came amid other odd practices. Supervisors encouraged Fields and others to not put things in writing and she noticed many directives and subsequent discussions were conducted in face-to-face meetings rather than over email.

She also questioned why she was being moved from her assignment monitoring cartels to take on oversight of investigations into protestors. “Los Angeles is a major transshipment hub for drug trafficking and Ms. Fields questioned the directive’s operational logic, as agents were pulled off active cartel cases to satisfy what her supervisor described as ‘optics’ designed to ‘make a show for the president,’” the report states.

Padilla in his letter asked a series of questions about the investigations, noting both Patel and Blanche had promised not to pursue political investigations. “Throughout your appearances before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, you promised that cases would be based only on the facts and the law, free from political interference. But the Disclosure paints a starkly different picture and raises serious questions about whether other similar investigations have been initiated under your tenures,” he wrote.

“Such allegations raise grave concerns about the rule of law under your leadership, the diversion of resources from ongoing criminal investigations, and the testimony that you provided under oath to Congress.” The DOJ and the FBI in a joint statement dismissed the report as a politically motivated attack. “Under President Trump, the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously uphold the First Amendment rights of all Americans and restore the rule of law.

The DOJ and FBI have a responsibility to investigate any potential violations of federal law, and conspiracies to impede federal law enforcement and assaults on federal officers are against the law. Violence is not protected by the First Amendment. Politically motivated attacks will not deter us from doing our job,” the statement said. Fields resigned from her job at the FBI after she was reassigned. “Ms. Fields believes this reassignment constituted retaliation for her protected disclosures.

No comparable action had been taken against her until after she objected to the protest-related investigations and reported those concerns outside her chain of command,” the report states.