WASHINGTON — The FBI’s Washington Field Office is folding its federal public corruption squad, the same unit that aided Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump, three people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
The field office has three units that work on public corruption issues, but this one — known internally as "CR15" — was deeply involved in the bureau’s "Arctic Frost" investigation, which was the precursor to the Smith probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies. That investigation resulted in one of the two federal criminal cases against Trump, both of which were dropped after his election.
FBI special agents assigned to the squad will be reassigned. A FBI official said the change was part of a broader reorganization at the Washington Field Office and that there would be additional changes to come — and that public corruption cases would still be pursued.
The move to shutter the unit comes amid a major shift of FBI resources towards immigration enforcement, an area that is primarily the responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. A top leader in the FBI’s Washington Field Office was also recently reassigned, two people familiar with the matter said. A FBI official said the person was not reassigned for any adversarial reason.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department slashed its Public Integrity Section, which had also worked on public corruption cases. Members of the unit had also resigned after refusing to sign off on dropping the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A judge ultimately dropped the case, adding a condition beyond what the Trump administration had sought: He said that the Justice Department would not be allowed to revive the case later, because that would give the government leverage over the mayor.
“This is yet another sign that it’s open season for political corruption," said Stacey Young, the executive director and founder of the group Justice Connection, a network of Justice Department alumni supporting DOJ's workforce. "The administration gutted the Public Integrity Section, neutered the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., and is now shuttering the FBI’s pre-eminent federal public corruption squad. This isn’t what voters had in mind when they heard, ‘drain the swamp.’”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chair Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have recently scrutinized the work of CR15, writing letters to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the unit.
“My oversight has shown time and again how the FBI’s CR-15 unit was weaponized to execute one-sided political attacks, particularly against President Trump and his allies,” Grassley said in a statement. “It’s good news it’s been shut down after I exposed the unit for its misconduct. Transparency brings accountability, and the FBI must ensure all records are preserved as my investigations continue.”
The investigation into the effort by Trump and allies to overturn the 2020 election results was launched in April 2022, before Trump had announced his run for president in 2024. After Trump launched his campaign, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel in late 2022, saying it was in the public interest to have an outsider lead the investigation rather than have Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, oversee the probe.
Trump was indicted in August 2023, but his trial was delayed by appeals, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that gave Trump immunity for official actions taken as president.
Smith issued a report finding that Trump had “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence“ during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and that he had knowingly spread an objectively false narrative about election fraud in the 2020 election.
