i want to bring in nbc's ken dilanian. lisa rubin is staying with me. ken, what can you tell us about this? >> chris, these agents. >> are. >> challenging not. >> just the. >> survey. >> but the effort to. >> compile and disseminate. >> a list. >> of all. >> of the fbi personnel who worked on january 6th cases. >> they say. >> that there's no legitimate. >> reason to do. >> this the way. >> that the trump administration. >> is trying. >> to do it right now. and they allege. >> that the very act of. >> compiling a. >> list of persons who. >> worked on matters. >> that upset. >> donald trump. >> is retaliatory. >> in. >> nature. >> intended to intimidate fbi agents and other personnel. >> and to. >> discourage them. >> from reporting any. >> future malfeasance. >> by donald trump or. >> his agents. >> and while there are only nine. >> plaintiffs. >> chris. >> i. >> can tell you that a lot many more. >> fbi agents than that support this effort and may sign on to. >> the. >> class here. >> but it's going to be a difficult thing. >> i mean, obviously, a gover

joining us now is nbc's ken dilanian. ken, good morning. what exactly is going on here?ening at the fbi is something the bureau has never experienced in its history. agents being targeted by political leadership because of cases they were ordered to work on. as you said, at least eight senior executives have been fired, including most of the executive assistant directors who run the major divisions and at least two heads of field offices in washington, d.c. and miami. but today, the fear is that a lot more is coming because the trump justice department has identified, as you said, all personnel who worked on the january 6th cases, that's around 5000 people. by one estimate, and has sent them a list of questions trying to determine exactly what they did on those cases. what's even more extraordinary, jose, is that the leaders of the bureau are in open rebellion over this. we reported over the weekend that acting fbi director brian driscoll, who was installed by the white house, pushed back forcefully on a plan to fire even more agents so hard that people thought he would

nbc's ken dilanian is here with us. ken, what more can you tell us about this? >> chris, there. >> are. >> nine plaintiffs that are. >> not named in this lawsuit. >> and they argue. >> that the. >> effort to compile a list of fbi employees who worked on january 6th cases amounts to. >> an. >> attempt at legal retribution. and they go. >> on to say that the very act. >> of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters. >> that upset. >> donald trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate. fbi agents and other personnel. >> and to discourage. >> them from reporting any future malfeasance by donald trump and. >> his agents. >> and they are asking a judge to essentially halt what's been going on at the fbi. which is a request for the names. and then surveys were sent to people asking them. exactly what they did on the january 6th cases. >> and look. >> the government has a right. >> to evaluate. >> employees and compile lists of employees. but what these. >> fbi agents. >> are saying is that the dissemination of this list is. illegal in that it puts the

nbc's ken dilanian is following this for us from washington, d.c. going on at the fbi right now? >> chris, it's not an exaggeration to say that the fbi is in a state of crisis. and that's according to dozens of current and former fbi officials that we've been talking to at nbc news. they have never seen anything like this, where a group of agents has been targeted because of a case they worked on, that in many cases, they were assigned to. they were ordered to. and i'm talking about, of course, the january 6th capitol riot investigations. the acting director of the fbi has been ordered to turn over a list of names of people who were involved in that investigation. we're told they used the fbi case management software to figure out that there were 2400 cases and as many as 5 or 6000 people involved. and look, there were people who believed that they were going to be fired today, who were told that they would be fired today. now, that hasn't happened. as far as we know. we have not seen any firings today. but there is a great fear that there are going

frank figliuzzi and ken dilanian.reports, what defense secretary pete hegseth is looking to accomplish as he heads to the southern border today. plus, new nbc news reporting what happened to some of the migrants swept up in president trump's immigration crackdown? it might surprise you. >> i told you, i don't need these anymore. i have sling. >> okay. >> morning. i only left sling, deliver the news. i need to stay informed. thank you very much. nice one. >> nope. >> sling gives us all the news we want in a quick and reliable. >> manner and. >> at a. >> wonderful price. >> this critical time calls for the critical news coverage that sling provides. >> okay, see you tomorrow. >> the most important. >> news at the best price. >> sling lets. >> you do that. >> safelite repair safelite replace. >> nobody likes a. >> cracked windshield. >> but at least. >> you. >> can go to safelite. >> com and. schedule a fix in minutes. >> can't confirm. >> very easy. >> safelite can come to you. >> for. >> free, and our highly trained. >

and joining me now is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. ken, let's talk about how many people could lose their jobs. and you know how unprecedented this is, because i think the acting director put out a note saying that there could be thousands of people involved because so many fbi agents all over the country had even minor roles serving papers, doing investigations on, you know, this broad january 6th case. >> that's right. andrea. in fact, i obtained an internal fbi document today that said that they had identified 2400 january 6th cases open and closed, did that by going through the fbi's sentinel case management system, looking for names. so they identified 2400 cases. and that's a universe. i'm told of about 5000 fbi personnel. and that's not even everybody who worked on the cases. it's just the main participants. and then they. so they use that to send a questionnaire, a 12 question questionnaire to each of these people, asking them exactly what they did. so it looks like they're looking for, you know, they want the substance of what

and nbc's ken dilanian, thank you also for your reporting.y with you sort of had had a split screen. you had kash patel saying, oh no, no, i know he said i was going to arrest journalists and, and i know i have an enemies list, but no, no, no, no retribution. we're not going to have any retribution. which of course is the same thing that pete hegseth said. and then he got in in about 15 minutes later, it seemed suddenly retribution was being sought out by mark milley. i'm wondering, with this purge going on inside the fbi and with thom tillis and susan collins and lisa murkowski and todd young and mitch mcconnell and all these people, dave mccormick, all these people understanding how dangerous the world is and how our enemies want to come to the united states and kill americans and undermine our way of life. i'm curious, are they really going to vote for somebody who has promised retribution, who has promised to be part of this purge that's going on right now inside the fbi? >> yeah. i mean, one of the things that's been curious about this w

nbc's ken dilanian reports that the purge also includes more than 20 special agents in charge, including in miami and washington, d.c. governments come with policies. we all know that. we expect that may not be the people you voted for, but you know things are going to change. this is not a policy shift. this is a purge. and we're going to have much more on that coming up, because it's not just happening at the fbi. here's today's breaking news from the treasury department, as reported by the washington post, the highest ranking career official, not political appointee, career official at the treasury department, is departing after a clash with allies of billionaire billionaire elon musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private talks. lebrecque, the person who was dismissed, had a dispute with musk's surrogates over access to the payment system that the u.s. government uses to disperse trillions of dollars every year. the people said the exact nature of the disagreement was no

nbc's ken dilanian reports. this is also. >> national targeting. >> over 20 heads of fbi. >> field offices. >> including in big cities. >> like miami and washington. >> now, donald trump has. >> tapped kash. >> patel, who's had those hearings. just this week to run the fbi. and in a sign that some were. concerned about this possibility, the idea that punishing. >> people going. >> after agents who. >> did. >> their jobs for political reasons would be a bad thing. and notice that mr. patel, whether he was aware of this coming or not, disclaimed, basically opposed what multiple outlets are reporting trump and his team are now trying to do tonight. >> are you aware. >> of any. >> plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, fbi agents or personnel associated with trump investigations? >> i'm not. >> i'm not aware of that. thank you. >> patel saying there yesterday he was. >> not aware of that. and other question that i'm going. >> to. >> show you which matters to all this. he also said there sh

. >> can ken dilanian, thank you for your incredible reporting. we're going to be relying on it.ch an important note that these are nonpolitical civil servants. they've been keeping us safe across the country, many of them for decades. and it's absolutely outrageous. i'll just say what we've seen happen tonight. andrew weissmann, always love talking to you. thank you for shedding light on all this as well. i'm joined now by senator angela alsobrooks, democrat of maryland. senator, i there's so much news happening at all moments. i was so struck. let me just first say, by the moment you had in the rfk jr hearing this week, and i want to talk about that and your role on that committee. but i first have to start by asking you about this purge of fbi officials of all levels are law enforcement across the country that we've just seen happen this evening. yeah. >> you know, you mentioned there's a lot happening. so i would. >> be remiss if i didn't first. >> express my. >> condolences yet. >> another plane. >> crashed tonight. so much is happening, as you mentioned. regarding the fbi.

and then separately, there was news that was reported by my colleagues, ken dilanian and ryan riley,have begun. >> yesterday. >> several of them were told to leave. so it was a very confusing message yesterday. so, david, you know, part of why it has drawn such scrutiny is there's. >> first this. >> belief that he. >> will. >> do whatever donald. >> trump has. >> asked. >> will ask. >> him to do. >> he has said that in. >> the past. and also, of course, he has an enemies list printed for all to. >> see in the back of. >> his book. and we certainly believe, you know, people he would potentially go after is more expansive than those just written. >> down there. did that. >> come up yesterday? >> what did he say. >> about this idea of using the department of. justice to carry out retribution? >> he vowed he wouldn't. >> do it. >> as you saw senator graham say. he said that, you know, the democrats have used it for weaponization. i'm not going to do that. and he insists, he. >> says in the book. >> over and over, there are. criminal members of the deep state, and it's a list of people th