Hiring Freeze causes confusion and anxiety in the FBI

The FBI has taken drastic measures to comply with President Trump’s hiring freeze, causing deep uncertainty within the bureau’s ranks and disorienting new recruits.

These actions are contrary to the executive order issued by the president hours after he took office, which specifies that the suspension does not apply to national security or public safety officials. that’s it. Considering that one of the main missions of the FBI is to protect against terrorism and other possible threats, it is still not clear why the office cannot.

Regardless of the process, it is sure to disrupt the agency’s efforts to recruit, retain, and train employees.

The office’s human resources department, in an internal memo released Friday, outlined the actions it took as a result of the order, including providing the White House with a list the probationary staff.

The staff’s concerns have been fueled by deep suspicions and relentless attacks on President Trump and his choice for agency director, Kash Patel, that he has placed in office because of his previous criminal investigation. which booked Mr. Trump. Mr. Patel has promised to turn FBI headquarters into a museum of the “deep state,” dismantle the bureau’s intelligence staff and cut the office of general counsel, which provides legal advice to the director.

Already on the brink, FBI officials are now wondering whether the directive signals the administration’s intention to undermine part of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, or has even prompted Mr. Trump to quickly reshuffle the federal bureaucracy.

The FBI declined comment and referred questions to the Justice Department, which, like other government agencies, has been hit by a staffing shutdown. A spokesman for the department did not immediately comment.

Among the moves that have raised concerns at the FBI is the White House’s request for the names of probation officers, or employees who have joined the bureau in the past two years — some of whom they are military veterans. The list includes more than 1,000 employees in field offices across the country.

The memo said the board must verify which employees on the list the agency wants to keep.

“Actually, our employees on that list are on that list because we hired them to do heavy work,” the memo said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure they stay with the FBI.”

Firing new recruits would be a major blow to the FBI, which spends tens of thousands of dollars recruiting, hiring and putting them through 20 weeks of intensive training.

The FBI said its new class of detectives and investigators will begin training at an office building in Quantico, Va., as scheduled on Sunday. But the next class, the backbone of the nation’s defense agency’s capabilities, appears to be stalling as job offers for staff and analysts freeze.

Field offices, which are struggling to replenish their teams, will have to struggle to ensure that investigations and other work can continue smoothly if staff are let go and not paid to match the pension.

All recruitment activities and events have also been suspended. The office said the job posting has been removed but is trying to find a waiver for the agency.

The FBI, which has about 38,000 employees, was already facing budget cuts before Mr. Trump the workers.

In June, Christopher A. Wray, who fell out of favor with Mr. Trump and resigned before the inauguration, told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the agency had been cut because of previous budget cuts.

He warned that the threat to the country has never been greater.

“Our enemies are not slowing down their efforts because of budget constraints,” he said. “In fact, threat actors may try to take advantage of federal budget cuts to carry out malicious activities.”

Similar to the Department of Justice, the FBI has set the interns program for the awards it wants for the 2026 fiscal year, the memo said.