As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a “brain drain” in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyberattacks from Tehran, according to six former senior DOJ and FBI officials.
Staff levels in the DOJ National Security Division’s Law and Policy section have dropped by as much as two-thirds, two former DOJ officials said. Its counterintelligence and export control section — which tracks foreign espionage in the U.S. by Iran and other foreign rivals — has lost about a third of its workforce, the former DOJ officials said.
A former senior FBI official said he was aware of at least 20 national security personnel who had left the bureau in the last three months.
“The senior ranks of the FBI and DOJ’s national security teams have been decimated,” a former senior DOJ official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said through text message. “As a result, the FBI and Justice Department are completely unprepared to respond to a crisis, including the fallout from the current conflict in the Middle East.”
A second former senior DOJ official expressed concern about the division’s ability to thwart retaliatory attacks from Iran.
“The US and Israeli strikes on Iran have heightened the risk of Iranian retaliation in the homeland and a lone wolf violent extremist attack,” the former official said by text. “The National Security Division was created to ensure there are DOJ prosecutors with nationwide visibility into the threat landscape at times like this, and its work has never been more important.”
After President Donald Trump took office in January, several top DOJ and FBI national security officials who participated in the criminal investigations into Trump or the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters were removed from their jobs and, in some cases, reassigned to immigration enforcement, according to current and former DOJ and FBI officials. Four of the top officials ousted from the National Security Division had close to 100 years of experience between them, former officials said.
David Laufman, former head of the National Security Division’s counterintelligence and export control section, expressed similar concerns.
“In the aftermath of the U.S. military strikes in Iran, the FBI will need to maximize counterterrorism resources to prevent and disrupt anything the Iranians might attempt within the United States,” Laufman said through text. “Let’s hope the recent personnel turmoil at the Bureau doesn’t adversely impact that effort.”
DOJ and FBI spokespersons said the agencies’ counterterrorism efforts remain strong.
A Justice Department spokesman said that the National Security Division, or NSD, has been investigating and prosecuting foreign and domestic terrorism cases, citing recent work on the Minnesota shooting of two state lawmakers and the attack on a fertility center in Palm Springs, California.
“The National Security Division is staffed with dedicated and talented personnel who continue to provide significant support to a wide range of important cases in order to make America safe again,” Chad Gilmartin said in an emailed statement. “Any suggestion otherwise is a fiction generated by those who have no insight into the Division’s day-to-day work.”
The FBI affirmed its commitment to counterterrorism.
“The FBI continuously analyzes the threat landscape and allocates resources and personnel in alignment with that analysis and the investigative needs of the Bureau,” the FBI spokesperson said via email. “We make adjustments and changes based on many factors and remain flexible as various needs arise. The FBI’s role in and dedication to investigating terrorism, both domestically and internationally, has not changed.”
Concerns in the FBI
But a former senior FBI official said a loss of counterterrorism resources made the bureau less prepared to respond to potential retaliation from Iran.
In a text message, he said the diversion of bureau resources to focus on illegal immigration and the loss of national security experts “reduces the bureau’s effectiveness at a time when Iran is doubly incentivized to attack us.”
He said he hopes bureau leaders will now devote additional resources to the threat posed by Iran. “The Bureau surges like no other agency can,” he added.
Two former FBI officials said high-level ousters and resignations at lower levels are rampant within the counterterrorism division.
“There are people leaving left and right,” said the former senior FBI official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There is a brain drain at the executive level.”
