Whistleblower claims Trump ordered FBI to investigate LA anti-ICE protesters

Donald Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint that was submitted to the Senate judiciary committee.

Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat who represents California and serves on the committee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint.

“These allegations are deeply alarming,” Padilla, who also serves as the top Democrat on the border security and immigration subcommittee, said in a statement. “Using the FBI to target Americans for exercising their first amendment rights directly undermines our nation’s foundational values. I won’t rest until we get answers.”

NBC first reported on the allegations after viewing a copy of the complaint, which identifies the whistleblower as Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, who made the complaint following the federal response to anti-ICE demonstrations around the city’s federal buildings, and in residential area, early last year. Fields ultimately resigned from the bureau last year.

According to NBC, Fields alleges that Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, told the head of the field office to open an investigation into activities outside the federal building even though Fields says the activities were protected free speech. Fields also says the White House gave a directive to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate a group of protesters using megaphones during immigration enforcement operations after agents had initially declined to open an investigation.

Per NBC, Fields also claims that agents were taken agents based in Los Angeles were taken off active cartel cases to carry out the White House’s requests.