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| Jokers Wild |
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 Ex-FBI chief in Chicago sues the DOJ, claiming he was pressured to investigate Trump’s foes
11/02/26 02:15 PM
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The former head of the FBI in Chicago has accused the Trump administration of pressuring him to investigate the president’s political opponents and making him a “scapegoat” after a major federal case against anti-ICE protesters fell apart.
Douglas DePodesta, who served as FBI special agent in charge from 2024 until July 2026, alleged in a federal lawsuit filed on Monday that the Department of Justice (DoJ) had engaged in “misconduct” and “malfeasance” in its pursuit of unjust prosecutions – and that he was wrongly blamed for the DoJ’s missteps and unlawfully forced out of his job.
The suit names Kash Patel, the FBI director; Todd Blanche, the attorney general; and Andrew Boutros, the US attorney who leads the DoJ’s Chicago office.
DePodesta’s complaint alleges that Boutros pursued “politically motivated prosecutions” of protesters that turned into an “unprecedented disaster” for the DoJ and accuses the US attorney of making “intentionally” false statements to a judge.
DePodesta’s lawsuit provides a rare first-hand account from a senior FBI official of the fallout from the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to criminally charge leftwing activists even when the charges are opposed by law enforcement officials.
During Operation Midway Blitz, ICE’s intense crackdown on Chicago last year, Boutros repeatedly pressured DePodesta to launch investigations that were “politically motivated”, the suit alleges.
On one occasion, Boutros was “openly hostile” when the FBI refused to write an affidavit saying a protester had “assaulted” an officer after the FBI reviewed video, which showed there was only “incidental touching as a result of the federal immigration agent’s tackling of the protester”, the complaint says.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/02/fbi-douglas-depodesta-trump-lawsuit-doj
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