WASHINGTON — David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, was notified Thursday that he was going to lose his job and is preparing to leave the bureau, according to two senior law enforcement sources — the latest step in an unprecedented purge of top executives at FBI headquarters as well as leadership in FBI field offices across the country.
Sundberg is the highest-ranking field agent so far to be fired from the FBI in Trump's second term.
Sundberg, who joined the FBI in 2002, was put in charge of the Washington Field Office by then-FBI Director Christopher Wray in December 2022. It is one of the highest-profile positions an agent can achieve in the field at the FBI.
Special agents from the Washington Field Office were heavily involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of now-President Donald Trump, as well as the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that resulted in criminal charges against hundreds.
News of Sundberg's departure comes amid a broader slate of firings hitting leadership at the bureau. NBC News reported that as many as eight senior executives at FBI headquarters have been told to resign or be fired. New faces are coming in, too, with a Republican Capitol Hill staffer as well as an affiliate of Elon Musk have taken on leadership roles within bureau headquarters.
It's part of a broader effort to reshape the federal workforce, which has hit the upper levels of the Justice Department particularly hard in recent days.
Sundberg was in charge of nearly 1,600 employees at the Washington Field Office, leading FBI operations across Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, including high-profile cases involving terrorism and public corruption, like the Trump investigations.
Sundberg inherited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation, as well as the investigation into the pipe bombs left near the Republican and Democratic party headquarters buildings the night of Jan. 5, 2021, which still remains unresolved. Sundberg also served as the special agent in charge of the New Haven Field Office in 2020 and led the tactical efforts across the Department of Justice for the presidential inauguration in January 2021.
Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, and the Trump administration got rid of the FBI's Capitol Violence website, which featured images of rioters who assaulted law enforcement officers but were never arrested. The new administration also shut down the section of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office that had been investigating the riot.
