Donald Trump said he will fire an unspecified number of FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases, after the justice department sought the names of bureau employees involved in investigations related to the Capitol attack.
“I’ll fire some of them because some of them were corrupt,” Trump replied when asked at a press conference with the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, if he would fire all the agents who investigated January 6.
“I have no doubt about that. I got to know a lot about that business, that world. I got to know a lot about that world, and we had some corrupt agents, and those people are gone, or they will be gone, and it’ll be done quickly and very surgically.”
Just before he wrapped up his press conference, Mr Trump was asked if he had given Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” any particular orders of where to find areas to cut spending.
“We haven’t discussed that much,” he said. “I’ll tell him to go here, go there. He does it. He’s got a very capable group of people, very, very, very, very capable. They know what they’re doing. They’ll ask questions, and they’ll see immediately, as somebody gets tongue-tied, that they’re either crooked or don’t know what they’re doing.
“I’ve instructed him go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along, and they’re finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things,” the president added, without offering details.
“I’m very proud of the job that this group of young people, generally young people, but very smart people, they’re doing,” Mr Trump said, referring to the reportedly young engineers Mr Musk has staffed Doge with.
“They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
Democrats have condemned the effort, saying Mr Musk and his employees are unqualified and have put America’s privacy at risk by accessing the Treasury and other sensitive government systems, among other concerns. – Guardian
