The head of the FBI's New York Field Office was forced out of the bureau on Monday, a month after he urged his employees to "dig in" after the Trump administration removed senior FBI leaders and requested the names of all agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases, five sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
In an email to staff on Monday, Dennehy said that he had been forced to retire from the bureau.
"Late Friday, I was informed that I needed to put my retirement papers in today, which I just did," Dennehy wrote. "I was not given a reason for this decision."
Two of the sources said James Dennehy, a highly respected leader, was given a choice to resign or be fired. He was eligible for retirement and has officially retired.
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Last month, Dennehy wrote an email to his staff after the Trump Justice Department, led by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, demanded a list of employees who had worked criminal cases against the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
"Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own as good people are being walked out of the FBI," Dennehy wrote. "And others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and FBI policy."
"Time for me to dig in," Dennehy added.
Dennehy spent six years in the Marine Corps before joining the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks. At the bureau, he specialized in weapons counter-proliferation, and spent time in management roles in both the Washington and New York field offices before taking over the FBI's Newark Field Office in 2022 and then being promoted to lead the New York office in 2024.
The move came amid an intense period for the bureau, which will be headed by two conservative media figures: Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. FBI special agents have expressed shock over the announcement that Bongino would take over the critical deputy director role, where he'll oversee the day-to-day actions of the bureau. The announcement came just after the Senate confirmed Patel as the bureau's director.
Trump has promised to fire "some" FBI special agents who worked Jan. 6 cases, baselessly asserting that they were "corrupt."
On Friday, Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin demoted several top officials in the office, including high-ranking prosecutors who had worked key cases against Jan. 6 rioters and other Trump supporters.
Trump has nominated Martin — a "stop the steal" organizer who was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and who represented several Capitol attack defendants — to take over the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia on a more permanent basis.
