Reuters: Exclusive: FBI employees worry Trump’s Washington surge is exposing unmarked cars

  • Current and former FBI employees express concerns over national security risks
  • FBI’s undercover cars risk exposure due to federal law enforcement surge
  • Former DHS official warns of risks to sensitive investigations
  • FBI spokesman says ‘FBI leadership hasn’t received any of the concerns alleged’

President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement into Washington, D.C., is exposing the FBI’s fleet of unmarked cars, potentially risking its ability to do its most sensitive national security and surveillance work, nine current and former employees of the bureau warned.

The surge, which the White House has said is meant to crack down on violent crime but has featured many arrests for minor offenses, could make it harder for the FBI to combat violent criminal gangs, foreign intelligence services and drug traffickers, said the current and former employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

As part of the surge, FBI agents who normally conduct their investigative work out of the spotlight are now more involved in routine police work in Washington, appearing in high-profile areas dressed in tactical gear and emerging from unmarked cars, with the unintended effect of potentially identifying those vehicles to surveillance targets.

As the Republican president publicly muses about expanding his crackdown into cities such as Chicago and Baltimore, the employees said they are urging leadership not to continue to expose more vehicles in this way.

“Every time you see us getting out of covert cars wearing our FBI vests that car is burned,” said one of eight current FBI employees who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“We can’t use these cars to go undercover, we can’t use them to surveil narcotraffickers and fentanyl suppliers or Russian or Chinese spies or use them to go after violent criminal gangs or terrorists,” said a second current FBI employee.

An FBI spokesman denied the current employees’ assertions.

“The claims in this story represents a basic misunderstanding of how FBI security protocol works — the Bureau takes multiple safeguards to protect agents in the field against threats so they can continue doing their great work protecting the American people,” Ben Williamson, assistant director of the FBI public affairs office said in an email.

“FBI leadership hasn’t received any of the concerns alleged here, and anyone who did have a good faith concern would approach leaders at headquarters or our Washington Field Office rather than laundering bizarre claims through the press.”

The White House referred questions to the FBI.

The use of as many as 1,000 FBI unmarked vehicles in Washington during highly public scenes comes amid an already heightened threat to law enforcement from cartels, gangs and hostile nations who actively seek to identify agents and their vehicles, the current and former FBI employees said.

“They’re putting federal agents in a more highly visible situation where they’re driving their undercover cars and they’re engaging in highly visible public enforcement action or patrol actions,” said John Cohen, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism coordinator.

“They may be unwittingly compromising the ability of those same personnel to go back and engage in sensitive investigations.”

The current and former FBI employees said they spoke to Reuters because of the depth of their concerns and the potential harm to national security and safety of the American public.

‘BAD FOR THE BUREAU’

Several of them urged an end to the practice of using undercover cars in the surge now before more are exposed.

“This is crazy, dangerous and bad for the bureau,” said former FBI agent Dan Brunner, who worked on cases involving the MS-13 street gang before retiring from the bureau in September 2023 after a two-decade career there.

“This is currently in D.C., which is the most saturated city with foreign nation spies, foreign actors so of course they’re going to be down there,” Brunner said. “So those guys, you know, their vehicles, their license plates are getting recorded.”

Reuters was not able to determine whether foreign actors were in fact tracking agents’ vehicles and Brunner did not provide evidence that they were doing so. But Brunner, Cohen and the current and former FBI employees said investigative targets, such as members of drug gangs and foreign intelligence entities, are constantly working to try to identify law enforcement agents and FBI in particular and said there would be no reason to think that would have stopped during the surge.

“It is a major threat facing U.S. law enforcement,” said Cohen, who now serves as executive director for the Center for Internet Security’s program for countering hybrid threats.

Cohen and several of the current and former FBI employees who spoke to Reuters cited a recent report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog that detailed how this kind of information can be used against law enforcement.

In 2018, a hacker working for the Sinaloa Cartel homed in on an FBI employee working at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, accessing their phone records and tapping into the city’s network of cameras to help the cartel identify, track and kill FBI witnesses and sources.

“This isn’t a hypothetical issue, just look at what happened in Mexico City,” said a third current FBI employee.

Brunner, the retired agent, said that, at minimum, he believes the license plates of all the cars that were used in the surge need to be replaced. He and other current and former FBI employees said the bureau should consider using other cars if its agents are further deployed in future surges, perhaps renting them or borrowing them from other U.S. government agencies.

“There’s an argument to be made that highly visible law enforcement presence in high-crime areas can serve as a deterrent for crime,” said Cohen, the former DHS official.

“But at the same time, the value that comes from the federal government in fighting violent crime is through their investigations, which very often are conducted in a way in which the identity and the resources and the vehicles of the investigators are kept, you know, secret.”

Poor babies! With the fewest possible exceptions, ALL police cars should be conspicuously marked. There should be NO secret police in the United States.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-employees-worry-trumps-washington-surge-is-exposing-unmarked-cars-2025-09-04

ABC News: DC attorney general sues to end federal National Guard deployment

Nearly 2,300 troops from seven states have been stationed in D.C. since Aug. 11.

Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Thursday to end the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to the city, calling it an unlawful “military occupation.”

Nearly 2,300 troops from seven states have been stationed in the district since Aug. 11, a move Schwalb says goes beyond the president’s authority and violates local autonomy under the Home Rule Act.

The lawsuit argues the troops were placed under Defense Department command and later deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service to perform law enforcement, which Schwalb’s office says is “in violation of the foundational prohibition on military involvement in local law.”

By law, the president’s emergency deployment can last only 30 days unless extended by Congress, meaning the surge is set to expire Sept. 10.

Schwalb also alleges the federal government is unlawfully asserting command over state militias without formally bringing them into federal service, which he says is a violation of the Constitution and federal law.

The complaint says the deployments threaten to erode trust between residents and police, inflame tensions and damage the city’s economy — particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industries as, just last month, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington extended summer restaurant week in an effort to draw customers during the surge.

The attorney general’s office further argues that the deployments violate the Home Rule Act by overriding local autonomy and undermining public safety “by inflaming tensions and eroding trust between District residents and law enforcement.”

Still, Gregg Pemberton, the D.C. union chairman said the long-term goal is for the Metropolitan Police Department to resume full responsibility.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-attorney-general-sues-end-federal-national-guard/story?id=125240857

Politico: DC sues over Trump administration’s attempted takeover of city police

Washington officials are suing the Trump administration over what they call a “baseless power grab” after the Department of Justice ordered a new “emergency” head of District police.

“By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,” Schwalb wrote in an X post Friday. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, warns that the attempted takeover could “wreak operational havoc” on the Metropolitan Police Department because of the confusion about who has operational control. The city’s lawyers say the push by President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam [“Bimbo#3”] Bondi violates the law in multiple ways — exceeding the president’s legal power to intervene in city affairs and rescinding policies adopted by local government.

They’re asking a federal judge to immediately rescind Bondi’s attempted takeover and effort to rewrite Washington police policies, declaring them to be unlawful. It’s unclear how quickly a judge will act, but the emergency nature of the filing could lead to proceedings as soon as Friday.

The suit is the biggest pushback from city officials since Trump invoked a provision of the Home Rule Act — the 1970s law that allows for limited self-governance by Washington’s government — that allows the president to direct the Metropolitan Police Department’s services to address “special conditions of an emergency nature.”

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee known for her take-no-prisoners approach from the bench. Reyes, most notably, blocked Trump’s transgender military ban before her injunction was paused by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Amid the litigation, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Reyes for her pointed comments to government attorneys — though she at times also praised their advocacy and made similarly pointed comments to lawyers for the transgender service members.

In a declaration accompanying the city’s bid for an immediate restraining order, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said the administration’s gambit is “endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers.”

“In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive.”

The suit underscores that no president in history has invoked the authority to manage the city’s police department. And the city’s lawyers say the president’s power to do so requires cooperation between city officials and the federal government, not a hostile takeover.

Bondi on Thursday issued an order that directed Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole to assume “all the powers and duties” of the city’s police chief as the new “Emergency Police Commissioner,” “effective immediately.”

[“Bimbo#3”] Bondi’s order also purported to rescind or suspend several Washington police orders — including one issued by Smith earlier on Thursday that allowed for limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Schwalb — both Democrats elected by Washington residents — insisted late Thursday that [“Bimbo#3”] Bondi could not legally disrupt the typical chain of command for MPD officers by requiring them to report to Cole.

“Therefore, members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,” Schwalb wrote in a letter Thursday to Smith that was circulated by Bowser. “Regardless of the [“Bimbo#3”] Bondi order, no official other than you may exercise all the powers and duties of the Chief of Police.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Democrats’ attempts to “stifle” [“Bimbo#3”] Bondi’s orders are “par for the course” for the party.

“The Trump Administration has the lawful authority to assert control over the D.C. Police, which is necessary due to the emergency that has arisen in our Nation’s Capital as a result of failed leadership,” Jackson said in a statement.

A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment.

Trump on Monday issued an executive order invoking the Home Rule Act, insisting that the District was overrun by violence. He also deployed the National Guard to the city.

But before [“Bimbo#3”] Bondi’s order Thursday looking to replace the MPD chief, city officials have largely limited their criticism of the Trump administration, noting that Washington was in a fairly unique situation that gave the federal government broad powers and authorities.

“The feds have an outsize role in D.C., we all know that,” Bowser told POLITICO Wednesday morning. “Right now, having a surge of officers enhances our MPD forces on a temporary basis. We’re going to stay focused on hiring more MPD or, when this temporary surge is over, figuring out more permanent partnerships to tap into when we need a surge of officers.”

But Trump’s Monday press conference went far beyond what his executive order said, with the president saying his administration would “take our capital back.”

“Giving us additional resources is a good thing, but that’s also quite different than federalizing our police force,” D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said Wednesday in an interview. “Donald Trump is not going to tell our police how to police.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have introduced dueling legislation over Trump’s moves. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced a resolution Friday to grant Trump “the authority to maintain federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, D.C. for as long as necessary to restore law and order.”

Democratic lawmakers also introduced a joint resolution Friday to terminate the administration’s control of D.C. police by voiding Trump’s proclamation of a crime emergency in Washington. But without control of either chamber of Congress, the effort among Democrats is almost certainly futile.

“Trump has made clear that his efforts in D.C., where 700,000 taxpaying American citizens lack the protections of statehood, are part of a broader plan to militarize and federalize the streets of cities around America whose citizens voted against him,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in his statement.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/15/dc-police-trump-lawsuit-00511086